Terminology Tuesday: Abduction

Abduction: An argument form that trades on giving the best explanation for a state of affairs, given the appropriate criteria. This is sometimes called “the inference to the best explanation.” (Some view abduction as a form of induction; others put it in a unique category of inference.) In one sense, Christian apologetics is abductive in its overall method; it attempts to give the best explanation for reality on the basis of Christian theism.1

1. Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith  (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), p. 677.