Virtual habit as episode-builder in the inferencing process

Abstract

AbstractC. S. Peirce’s concept of virtual habit, especially articulated in his later manuscripts, renovates his earlier notion of how explanatory rationality operates to form sound inferences, reinforcing his commitment to a genuinely pragmaticistic worldview. Virtual habit represents Peirce’s clearest directive of how to guess right. Pictures in the mind (unbidden/constructed) promote new modes of consciousness that, in turn, impel the kind of inferences which surface in recommendations for courses of action – Peirce’s most influential kind of abduction (1909: MS 637). Virtual habits transcend subjective perspectives about which factors contribute to outcomes as well as incorporate which who, where, and when controls the ultimate consequence. Virtual habits serve as windows illustrating how imaged events preempt the adoption of new belief structures/action plans that afford the more plausible recourses to resolve anomalous consequences. Virtual habits propose imminent action plans (