This paper presents arguments and evidence from psychology and neuroscience supporting Lipton’s 2004 claim that scientists create knowledge through an abductive process that he calls “Inference to the Best Explanation”. The paper develops two conclusions. Conclusion 1 is that without conscious effort on our part, our brains use a process very similar to abduction as a powerful way of interpreting sensory information. To support Conclusion 1, evidence from psychology and neuroscience is presented that suggests that what we humans perceive through our senses is not reality, but rather, our ‘brain’s “best guess” of the causes of its sensory input. The implication of this best guessing is that our brains use a process very similar to abduction throughout our lives to inform us of what is happening in the world around us. In addition, an argument based on Darwinian evolution is presented claiming that our brains do an excellent job of interpreting sensory information from the outside world. (If they did not, we, as a species, could hardly have survived.) Combining these two claims leads to Conclusion 1. Building on Conclusion 1, Conclusion 2 is that Lipton and others are correct in claiming that scientists use abduction when creating scientific theories. Abduction must be strong, because Nature chose abduction for its own sensemaking purposes. This paper’s contribution to knowledge is in pointing out that recent psychological and neuroscientific research has major implications for the philosophical world’s confidence in the probable validity of abductive inference. The punchline is simple: Nature chose abduction!

本文提出了来自心理学和神经科学的论点和证据，支持 Lipton 2004 年的说法，即科学家通过他称之为“最佳解释推理”的溯因过程创造知识。该论文得出两个结论。结论 1 是，如果没有我们有意识的努力，我们的大脑会使用与绑架非常相似的过程作为解释感官信息的有力方式。为了支持结论 1，提供了来自心理学和神经科学的证据，表明我们人类通过感官感知的不是现实，而是我们的“大脑”对其感官输入原因的“最佳猜测”。这种最佳猜测的含义是，我们的大脑在我们的一生中使用与绑架非常相似的过程来通知我们周围世界正在发生的事情。此外，提出了一个基于达尔文进化论的论点，声称我们的大脑在解释来自外部世界的感官信息方面做得非常出色。（如果他们不这样做，我们作为一个物种，几乎不可能存活下来。）将这两种说法结合起来得出结论 1。在结论 1 的基础上，结论 2 是 Lipton 和其他人声称科学家在创造科学时使用绑架是正确的理论。绑架必须是强大的，因为大自然为了自己的意义而选择了绑架。本文对知识的贡献在于指出最近的心理学和神经科学研究对哲学界对溯因推理的可能有效性的信心具有重大意义。重点很简单：大自然选择了绑架！