The relevance of abductive inference- the process of forming hypotheses- to System Dynamics (SD) methodology has been raised previously by Ryan (1996) and Barton (1999).
This paper provides a further explication of this relevance. Specifically, it provides:
•	An introduction to the logic of abductive inference and its relevance to describing the management process.
•	An interpretation of the Events- Patterns of Events- Structure framework as an application of abductive inference.
•	A re-framing of the methodological debates between Forrester (1968) and Ansoff and Slevin (1968)
•	Implications for interpreting the role of the SD model within a complete learning structure.