– “For Those Who Are Not Afraid of the Future”: Raëlian Clonehood in the Public Sphere
I am aware that it could seem almost weird to propose recovering the concept of abduction from pragmatic philosophy, specifically Charles Sanders Peirce’s writings on “abductive reasoning” (particularly as discussed by Hans Joas) to talk about abduction in its connection to aliens, including ethnographers. But, returning to Latour’s “propositional” model, I would argue that pragmatism is precisely the place to look for the missing element in Latour’s construction: the leap of faith that propels Raëlians in their search for kinship in the outerspaces of ufology, as its does science practice, namely, the creative act. For Peirce, abductive reasoning entails “the production of a new hypotheses in the creative act”. As such, it presents a third form of logic, separate from induction, in which a general law is inferred from particular facts “torn up by the roots,” as Francis Bacon put it, and separate from deduction, which proceeds from universal laws to particular cases. Abduction, standing for Peirce precisely “between merely passive absorption of sensory impressions and communication with others about explanatory hypotheses”, is thus “the only logical operation which introduces any new idea”, since in the act of abduction, to quote Joas’s summation, “the scientist frees himself from the yoke of former perceptions and received interpretations and creates a free relationship to both…. Self-control and experience are used for the purpose of liberation to enable the free play of ideas and perceptions to take place”. Hypotheses, in this logical mode of “hopeful suggestions,” are thus always and optimistically “on probation”.
In E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outerspaces (2006), pp. 170-1