Charles Sanders Peirce and the Abduction of Einstein: On the Comprehensibility of the World

Abstract

Einstein was deeply puzzled by the success of natural science, and thought that we would never be able to explain it. He came to this conclusion on the ground that we cannot extract the basic laws of physics from experience using induction or deduction, and he took this to mean that they cannot be arrived at in a logical manner at all. In this paper I use Charles Peirce's logic of abduction, a third mode of reasoning different from deduction and induction, and show that it can be used to explain how laws in physics are arrived at, thereby addressing Einstein's puzzle about the incomprehensible comprehensibility of the universe. Interpreting Einstein's reflections in terms of Peirce's abduction also sheds light on abduction itself, by seeing it applied in an area where our common sense, and with that our intuitions, give us little or no guidance, and is even prone to lead us astray.