Peirce, Abduction, and Inverse Problems in the Geosciences

Abstract Charles Peirce’s most well-known contribution to logic and scientific methodology is his account of abduction . However, what exactly Peirce meant by abduction is subject to perennial dispute. My aim in this paper is two-fold: First, I interpret Peirce’s abduction through the lens of his research in geophysics and argue this supports interpreting it as a kind of inverse modeling. Second, I show that the methods Peirce outlined for managing the underdetermination of abductive inferences are the same as those deployed by geoscientists to manage the nonuniqueness of geophysical inversions. I conclude by emphasizing the value of reintegrating Peirce-the-Philosopher with Peirce-the-Geoscientist.