Abductive reasoning, creativity and selforganization
Maria Eunice Quilici González, Pim Haselager · 2002
We are going to investigate the nature of Creativity focusing on Peirce’s notion of abductive reasoning and on the main premises of the Theory of Self-Organization. As an initial hypothesis we characterize Creativity as a self-organizing process in which abductive reasoning occurs allowing the expansion of well-structured sets of beliefs. As originally characterized by Peirce, abduction in contrast with deduction and induction provides a mode of logical inference upon which creative reasoning is based. It starts with the perception of anomalies or apparently unsolvable problems: surprise and doubts initiate the abductive process of search and generation of those possible hypotheses that, if true, could resolve the problems in question. We argue that, as a kind of heuristics, abduction constitutes a guide for the process of expansion of beliefs. Our main hypothesis here is that this process can be investigated, from a theoretical perspective, in terms of the dynamics of order parameters shaping the flow of habits available to self-organizing systems. This hypothesis shall be developed in three steps: 1. The main steps of abductive reasoning, as proposed by Peirce (1931-1958), shall be described with indications of its relevance for the present approach to creativity. This kind of reasoning is described as a particular form of activity of dynamic selforganizing systems. 2. The premises of the theory of self-organization (TSO) will be introduced in order to illustrate the dynamics of creative systems. 3. Finally, we focus on the notions of habits and order parameters to characterize the dynamics of creative systems in which abductive reasoning seems to take place. Through (1), (2) and (3) we provide an interdisciplinary approach to Creativity, involving contributions of semiotics, self-organization theory and dynamical system theory. Key-words: abductive reasoning, beliefs, dispositions, habits, creativity, order parameters, self-organization. 1. Criatividade e raciocinio abdutivo Quando discutimos a nocao de criatividade, associamos imediatamente tal nocao com a nossa experiencia humana, na qual os aspectos individuais e sociais (presentes nas novas ideias, teorias e producoes artisticas) sao reconhecidos como valiosos. Nessa perspectiva, a criatividade envolveria aspectos subjetivos que dificultam a sua analise de um ponto de vista objetivo. Nesse contexto, Popper (1959) ressalta que (...) a questao de como um homem tem uma nova ideia podera ser de grande interesse para a psicologia empirica, mas e irrelevante para a analise logica do conhecimento cientifico ... O meu ponto de vista para essa questao e que nao ha