Not by luck alone: The importance of chance-seeking and silent knowledge in abductive cognition

Abstract

In this paper I will focus on luck in abductive cognition and its relationship with chance-seeking and silent knowledge. By definition luck can be neither predicted nor planned, but I will try to show how it can be actively sought by seeking those chances maximizing abducibility, which will be described as the opportunity of being afforded by lucky events. I will root this ability of seeking chances in evolution, more precisely, in the ability – not entirely unique to our species - of creating powerful cognitive niches, whose construction and modification lead to humans to self-domestication and, in so doing, to introduction of a sense of purposefulness in evolution. Finally, I will introduce the notion of silent knowledge thatwill be defined as the form of knowledge that emerges along with chance-seeking activities.