Antecipacion and abdution

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the concept of anticipation that, in accordance with De Tienne´s (2005) conception, is a process by means of which the representation of a future state orientates a present semeiotic event and its relation to the abductive reasoning. In such a conception, the anticipation involves a teleological dimension, in the extent that it incorporates signs with the unfolding of its interpretants. In the process of semeiosis, that is to say, in the unfolding of signs, they carry on their own future, for they are laden with intentions, desires, necessities and ideals. We point out that, in the semeiosis, the information is inherently processual, for signs are constituted in a dynamics, and by means of such a dynamics, when they are instantiated, they adopt a conditional form which has the characteristic of enunciating vaguely what may happen in the future. At anticipating an interpretation, semeiosis moves on in two directions in time: first, in the present, the interpretation involves something from the past which, when signalized via intentions, point us to the future; and, second, from the future to the present, when orientating the present events by means of the representation of the future. There is a correlation between these two time directions, in the extent that we can forecast, via semeiotic process, the future happenings, being such a forecast an orientation for the present events. We shall argue in defense of the existence of a fruitful relationship between the process of anticipation and the abductive reasoning, a relation that – when collecting information in the form of an ordered set of propositions of a semeiotic continuum – makes possible the formulation of new hypotheses.