Often called, Inference to the Best Explanation, abduction is a brand of inference that gives special status to explanatory thoughts. Thus, it is not surprising that many philosophers agree that the form of reasoning is useful both in daily and scientific thinking. Nevertheless, the exact form and normative state of abduction remains controversial. 

Normally, abduction is one of the three main categories of inference. The others include deductive and inductive reasoning. The distinction between deduction and abduction is similar to that between necessary and unnecessary inferences. Whenever, a truth of a given inference is not guaranteed, or needs a supporting statement, there is a danger that even when a premise is true, the conclusion might not be true.