Final answer:
The reasoning used in the statement 'Laurie may be sick' based on her absence from class and a conditional statement about her health is (c) abductive reasoning, which aims to provide the most plausible explanation without guaranteeing its truth.
Step-by-step explanation:
The given statements, 'Laurie is not in the class', and 'If Laurie is sick, she does not come to class', lead to a probable conclusion 'Laurie may be sick'. This type of reasoning is abductive reasoning, which is based on creating the most plausible explanation for a set of observations, especially when the conclusion is not guaranteed to be true, but is the best inference given the evidence at hand.
In this scenario, the absence of Laurie is a specific observation, and the reason for her absence is not definitive. However, based on the conditional statement that if she is sick, she does not attend class, the explanation that she may be sick is plausible, although it is not the only possible explanation. This contrasts with deductive reasoning, which moves from a general theory to a specific conclusion and can guarantee the truth of its conclusions, and inductive reasoning, which generally involves going from a series of specific observations to a general conclusion.