While the name "abduction" has been chosen to resemble the traditional terms "deduction" and "induction", the name does not make sense.
The name for this kind of reasoning should suggest a reverse direction when compared to "deduction", but "abduction" has the same direction as "deduction".
The preposition "ab" is related to the English "off" and "of" and it can usually be translated by "from". The preposition "de" means the same thing as "ab" (which is why in most Romance languages, like French, "de" corresponds to English "of"), except that it suggests a vertical movement from up towards down, while "ab" suggests a horizontal movement.
I do not know which might have been a better word, maybe they should just have stuck with "reverse deduction", because "reduction" is widely used with other meanings, or maybe they could have used "adduction", which has an opposite direction to "abduction" ("ad" corresponds to English "at").
The names "deduction" and "abduction" make grammatical sense when their direct objects are the premises (i.e. the action is "lead from premises"), while the name "adduction" makes grammatical sense when the direct objects of this action are the conclusions (i.e. the action is "lead at conclusions").
The name for this kind of reasoning should suggest a reverse direction when compared to "deduction", but "abduction" has the same direction as "deduction".
The preposition "ab" is related to the English "off" and "of" and it can usually be translated by "from". The preposition "de" means the same thing as "ab" (which is why in most Romance languages, like French, "de" corresponds to English "of"), except that it suggests a vertical movement from up towards down, while "ab" suggests a horizontal movement.
I do not know which might have been a better word, maybe they should just have stuck with "reverse deduction", because "reduction" is widely used with other meanings, or maybe they could have used "adduction", which has an opposite direction to "abduction" ("ad" corresponds to English "at").
The names "deduction" and "abduction" make grammatical sense when their direct objects are the premises (i.e. the action is "lead from premises"), while the name "adduction" makes grammatical sense when the direct objects of this action are the conclusions (i.e. the action is "lead at conclusions").