We began by accepting causation as a logically primitive concept (i.e., it is accepted without proof or derivation). Our general approach to causal assessment is pragmatic: it connects logic with action. Peirce believed that no method reliably delivers truth, but science can provide useful approximations of truth.
Logic should lead to the action that results in the desired outcome. It is a philosophy based on the premise that thinking is for doing. Effectively, this is adaptive management (Holling 1978, Walters 1986). Environmental monitoring could then be used inductively to infer that effluent was indeed the cause. We then can deduce that eliminating the effluent would result in biotic recovery. Induction from subsequent observations then should be used to support or refute deductive predictions.įor example, we may determine that an effluent is the likely cause of an impairment using abduction. Abductive inferences should be followed by deduction of the consequences of acting on the abduction. Peirce also included deduction and induction into the process. In CADDIS, abduction identifies the candidate causes that best account for observed effects.
Abductive inference identifies the hypothesis that best explains available information.
Peirce added a third type of inference, abduction, to deduction and induction (Hacking 2001, Josephson and Josephson 1996). Charles Sanders Peirce and his followers, William James and John Dewey, developed pragmatism. Our strategy draws upon pragmatism, a general system of philosophy.
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