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From: newsuser@oliver.SUBLINK.ORG (Ugo Cei)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Abduction: Summary
Message-ID: <1008@oliver.SUBLINK.ORG>
Date: 8 May 91 20:20:36 GMT
References: <1991May6.173412.11283@cs.ubc.ca>
Organization: Oliver, Pavia, Italy
Lines: 39

kean@cs.ubc.ca (Alex Kean) writes:

>The name
> 
>   \'\alpha \pi \alpha \gamma \omega \gamma \'\eta ==> (apagogy)

>means what Peirce called "abduction" and

>   \epsilon \pi \alpha \gamma \omega \gamma \'\eta ==> (epagogy)

>means "deduction". The \'\alpha ( a ) is like ( un- ) in English and
>thus (apagogy) is the opposite of (epagogy).

Not at all ! The alpha in ``apagwg\'h'' [substitute omega for `w' and
eta for `h', using a full TeX-like notation is just too clumsy for me]
is not a ``privative alpha'', that would indeed mean a negation of the
concept. Where would the ``pi'' come from, in that case ?

Rather, the word is formed from ``ap\'o'' (``from'' in current
English, however the root is the same as of Sanskrit ``apa'', Latin
``ab'', English ``of'') and ``\'agw'' (English ``I lead'', Sanskrit
``ajati'', Latin ``ago''), thus meaning ``the act of leading away'',
which in Latin is spelled ``abductio'', from ``abducere'', Greek
``ap-agage\~in''.

On the other side, ``epagwg\'h'' is made from ``ep\'i'' and ``\'agw'',
with the meanings of ``the act of leading into/onto''. Moreover, I
think that in Aristotles, the word is used with the meaning of
``reasoning by induction'' and not ``deduction'', but I have no proofs
to back this claim other than common sense and a reference in my
Greek-Italian vocabulary.

Whew! I never thought that the Greek I took while at ``Liceo
Classico'' would have served me in an occasion like this.

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