Logical and practical advantages of double consciousness

Abstract This account augments Peirce's concept of consciousness in two ways: 1) it highlights its double nature and 2) it explores how this two-sided consciousness advances modal logic. Double consciousness facilitates inferencing in that differences between old information and new information are noticed; logical conflicts between the two can then be explored and resolved expeditiously. This often natural but a forced need to consider new facts in light of old ones provides a scaffold for a higher level of consciousness, namely, self and heterocriticism — inciting interpreters to attend to the new facts, to intentionally compare facts and propositions, and to reflect upon the reasons for their comparative efficacy. In his call to double consciousness, Peirce enlivens us to draw deeply from the well of logical and practical affordances — surprising events and sustained interactive platforms. Peirce’s call requires us to utilize consciousness from its very basic level: attention to stimuli, awareness of unexpected facts, mental wrestling of effort and resistance, and finally synthetic consciousness which engenders binding frames of legitimate meanings from reliable genres. In this effort, Peirce informs us that the most reliable inferencing can only be ascertained by weighing ego with non-ego — through an active course of careful synthesis.