Abduction: Can non-human animals make discoveries?

Mariana Vitti-Rodrigues, Claus Emmeche

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between information and abductive reasoning in the context of problem-solving, focusing on non-human animals. Two questions guide our investigation: (1) What is the relation between information and abductive reasoning in the context of human and non-human animals? (2) Do non-human animals perform discovery based on inferential processes such as abductive reasoning? In order to answer these questions, we discuss the semiotic concept of information in relation to the concept of abductive reasoning and, more specifically, to the notion of manipulative abduction proposed by Magnani (2009). Finally, we investigate a case study of corvids’ intelligence, namely, their capacity of causal cognition.
Original languageEnglish
JournalBiosemiotics
Volume10
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)295-313
Number of pages19
ISSN1875-1342
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2017

Keywords

  • Faculty of Science
  • Information
  • Corvids' intelligence
  • problem solving
  • animal cognition
  • abduction

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