ABSTRACT The naturally occurring complexity of the social and natural worlds, along with rising challenges in the social, health and environmental domains, makes retroduction a compelling mode of inference in scientific research. As an antidote to ignorance, retroduction is key to understanding why the world is the way it is and to deriving solutions to complex problems. Retroduction is the activity of unearthing causal mechanisms. Mechanisms are latent and evade empirical measurement. This paper expands on these statements, to define what retroduction is and build upon the following concepts in scientific realism: (a) abduction; (b) ontological depth; (c) inference sufficiency; (d) latency and activation; and (e) approximation and accumulation. Using everyday examples, retroduction is demonstrated and applied to Pawson and Tilley's (1997) doctrine of the Scientific Realist paradigm and its application as a methodology for evaluation and research.

中文翻译：

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鲍森和蒂利应用科学现实主义中的追溯理论

摘要社会和自然世界的自然复杂性，以及在社会，健康和环境领域日益严峻的挑战，使归纳成为科学研究中引人注目的模式。作为无知的解毒剂，追溯是理解世界为何如此并为复杂问题寻求解决方案的关键。追溯是发掘因果机制的活动。机制是潜在的并且逃避了经验测量。本文在这些陈述的基础上进行了扩展，以定义什么是追溯，并以科学现实主义中的以下概念为基础：（a）绑架；（b）本体深度；（c）推论充分性；（d）延迟和激活；（e）近似和累加。使用日常示例，对还原进行了演示，并将其应用于Pawson和Tilley'