Holistic Abduction as an Inference Mode for Philosophy: Phenomenology and Beyond

Ole Höffken

Abstract: Abduction has been argued to be a crucial mode of inference in everyday, scientific and also philosophical reasoning. But especially in philosophy, a clear understanding of how abductive inference works is still a desideratum. I propose to understand abduction as a non-linear, holistic mode of inference, in line with Paul Thagards model of ‘coherence-based inference’. This model offers the possibility to integrate various kinds of abductive reasoning, especially, explanatory and non-explanatory ones. This is of special value to philosophy, since many philosophical theories do not seem to be explanatory in the same way as theories in the empirical sciences are. In this context, I explore the prospects for an integration of phenomenological and non-phenomenological methodology in the spirit of a ‘mutal entlightenment’ of first-, second-, and third-person approaches.

Bio: Ole Höffken studied history and philosophy at Bonn University, there 2022 dissertation (Ph.D.) in philosophy, on current methodological approaches in phenomenology, and possible integrations with other traditions, especially analytic philosophy and pragmatism. Since April 2022 post-doc at Heidelberg University, working on further applications of this approach. Link: https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/philsem/personal/hoeffken.html