title: Abduction--a way to deeper understanding of the world of caring.
abstract: In this article, abduction is discussed as a possible way of developing an epistemology for an autonomous caring science based on an ontology that requires deeper understanding of the world of caring. The intention is to elicit a more distinct caring-scientific pattern of knowledge based on the innermost core and historical conditions of caring. Abduction makes it possible to perceive connections on a deeper level and to penetrate in a way that reveals a richness of meaning, reflecting the true being in the dynamic process which is expressed in clinical reality. In the tradition of knowledge developed by Peirce, a synthesis of Hume's and Kant's tradition of knowledge, abduction is a fundamental idea. Peirce sees abduction as an operation of thought in which the recognition of underlying patterns makes a complex reality comprehensible. We regard the triad of abduction, induction and deduction as the basis for developing a caring-scientific epistemology where abduction makes a synthesizing abstraction possible and may implement understanding of deeper patterns.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eriksson
authors.forename: U A
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Lindström
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008128:Logic; D016294:Models, Nursing; D015399:Nursing Research; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D012586:Science