Ignorance-based cognitive strategies

What does it mean that abduction is ignorance-preserving? And how does this feature affect our study and understanding of abductive cognition? In this paper, we approach the issue of abduction and ignorance by discussing both epistemological and cognitive views on the matter. In detail, in the first section we will discuss how abduction can be understood by considering different examples and types of reasoning, which brings us to understand abductive cognition as a pattern of reasoning that defines not only sentential, only theoretical, nor only human cognitive processes. The second section will be dedicated to dealing with abductive reasoning applied in lower forms of cognition (in particular animal cognition). The argument will involve a redefinition of both the concept of representation (which will explicitly refer to the role that models and model-based reasoning play in different cognitive processes) and of ignorance (and, in turn, of knowledge) if considered to discuss abductive cognition. Then, in the third section we will reframe the question about the role of ignorance in abduction in an epistemological and cognitive perspective, making room for the view of ignorance as a virtue enabling the emergence of successful creative abductions