Reasoning Methods

In recent discussion on design thinking, I came across that abductive reasoning is the recommended approach for adaptivity and the art of possible. What exactly is abductive reasoning? And I came across that there are …

3 methods of reasoning

These three methods to navigate the known/known, known/unknown, unknown/known and unknown/unknown:

• Deductive reasoning
• Inductive reasoning
• Abductive reasoning

When comparing them side-by-side:

Deductive	Inductive	Abductive
de- “from”	in- “to” or “toward”	ab- “away”
reaching an answer or a decision by thinking carefully about the known facts	using a particular set of facts or ideas to form a general principle	forming a conclusion with known yet incomplete facts
reasoning with certainity	reasoning with probability	reasoning with guesswork
drawing concrete conclusion from certain rules and facts	arriving toward a probable conclusion with specific facts and rules	drawing a hypothesis or likely explanation with present (incomplete) observations