English Dictionary
◊ DEDUCTION
deduction
n 1: a reduction in the gross amount on which a tax is
calculated; reduces taxes by the percentage fixed for
the taxpayer's income bracket [syn: {tax deduction}]
2: an amount or percentage deducted [syn: {discount}]
3: something that is inferred (deduced or entailed or implied);
"his resignation had political implications" [syn: {entailment},
{implication}]
4: reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause
to effect) [syn: {deductive reasoning}, {synthesis}]
5: the act of subtracting (removing a part from the whole); "he
complained about the subtraction of money from their
paychecks" [syn: {subtraction}] [ant: {addition}]
6: the act of reducing the selling price of merchandise [syn: {discount},
{price reduction}]
English Computing Dictionary
◊ DID YOU MEAN ABDUCTION?
abduction
The generation of hypotheses to explain observations
or conclusions. Applications include fault diagnosis, plan
formation and {default reasoning}.
Both the {semantics} and the implementation of abduction can
be reduced to those for {deduction}. {Negation as failure} in
{logic programming} can both be given an abductive
interpretation and also can be used to implement abduction.
The abductive semantics of negation as failure leads naturally
to an {argumentation}-theoretic interpretation of default
reasoning in general.
[Better explanation? Example?]
(1994-11-08)