# Abduction **Abduction** is a form of logical [Inference](Inference.md) that seeks the simplest and most likely conclusion from a set of observations. Abduction has been described as a core tenet of intelligence. There is an argument that because language models need strong priors due to combinatorial search/hypothesis space, they therefore can’t do abductive reasoning. Abduction on first pass may seem to resemble Deutsch's principle of **seeking good [Explanations](Explanations.md)**. However, note that abduction is still a supposed *method* of inference[^1]. [Science is Problem Solving](Science%20is%20Problem%20Solving.md). There is no general method for that. --- Date: 20230906 Links to: Tags: References: * [https://overcast.fm/+aYlMYkhlQ/22:24](https://overcast.fm/+aYlMYkhlQ/22:24) * [https://twitter.com/grady_booch/status/1640798486676508673?s=46](https://twitter.com/grady_booch/status/1640798486676508673?s=46) [^1]: Where "method of inference" implies a set of steps - an algorithm - that one can follow.