Dear Terry,
This question about kinds of hypothesis formation is interesting, but I am too busy this week to properly answer it.
How many methods of hypothesis formation are there? In short, it’s like asking, “How long is a piece of string.”
The boundaries between one way of thinking and another are fuzzy, and the boundaries between methods of hypothesis formation are fuzzy.
There is no single taxonomy on this issue to establish a clear and definitive numerical answer to a question like this. Rather, people work with the question in several fields, and they approach the question in different ways to reach different answers. There are many questions involved: How do human beings think? How do human beings form hypotheses? What are the ways in which we can form reasonable hypotheses? What relation do reasonable hypotheses have to responsible conclusions?
Try the article on discovery in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-discovery/
Explanation and hypothesis are not different things. Rather, an hypothesis is a kind of explanation. It is an attempt to explain. Following the attempt, one must determine whether the explanation is reasonable. That is, one must inquire into its likelihood, or its status as a true or false explanation. Not all explanations are valid, true, or correct in scientific terms or even with respect to pragmatic effect. For example, myths and fables are explanations even though they are not true. And despite the fact that they are not true or correct, they may sometimes be useful.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University Press | Launching in 2015
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
> On 2015Feb10, at 20:52, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hi Ken,
> Many thanks, and thanks for the files.
> Just wondering how many other methods of hypothesis formation are there?
> Also how does this square with abduction being explanation (assuming explanation and hypothesis are different kinds of thing )?
> Best wishes,
> Terry
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