Abduction, IBE and standards of proof

Abstract

First, the article addresses the claims that Allen and Pardo make on the abductive nature of fact-finding in the framework of relative plausibility, and it considers also whether abduction and inference to the best explanation (IBE) can be taken as the same. Second, the article addresses the critique that IBE/relative plausibility is too weak to comply with the criminal standard of proof. On these issues the article argues that it is inappropriate to equate abduction and IBE (the former is just a component of the latter), which also means that the relative plausibility account is better construed as an IBE claim rather than as abduction; and it argues that the relative plausibility account survives the critique based on the criminal standard of proof, because, simply put, fact-finders need to consider whether the best explanation of the evidence meets the relevant standard of proof.