A two-tier model of abduction resolves a tension in Peirce's philosophy: perception is involuntary yet resembles reasoning. The model distinguishes abductive insight (spontaneous hypothesis generation) from abductive reasoning (conscious conceptual endorsement). Integrated with Predictive Processing, perceptual gestalt formation is abductive insight, while perceptual judgment is abductive reasoning. The framework extends to emotion: Barrett's theory of constructed emotion instantiates the same architecture, where core affect is abductive insight into interoceptive signals and emotional categorization is abductive reasoning. This synthesis reveals how conceptual operations shape affective experience and suggests emotion regulation interventions targeting either core affect or emotional categorization.
Depression's cognitive rigidity—persistent negative beliefs resistant to contrary evidence—arises from structural defects in reasoning, not merely from negative belief content. A three-layer model of inferential pathology identifies first-order fixation on negative self-referential explanations, a core failure of meta-abduction that prevents reflective revision of explanatory practices, and an inferential extension where rigid abductive conclusions become premises for destructive deductive reasoning, generating self-negating conclusions and closed ruminative loops. This framework unifies rumination and cognitive distortion, explaining the transition from situational responses to chronic pathology. Effective intervention should restore meta-abductive capacity—treating one's own explanatory practices as revisable—complementing traditional belief-correction approaches.