Southern Semiotic Review Issue 10 2019 Page 1 Action Habit as Imperative: Peirce’s Supreme Art Donna E. West State University of New York at Cortland westsimon@twcny.rr.com Bionote: Donna E. West is Full Professor of Linguistics and Spanish at the State University of New York, College at Cortland (USA). For nearly thirty years she has presented and published internationally in Semiotic studies using Peirce's sign system. Her principal research interests are: Semiotics, Cognition, General Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Child Development, Phenomenology of Language, and Language Acquisition. Her 2013 book, Deictic Imaginings: Semiosis at Work and at Play, investigates the role of Index in the acquisition of demonstratives and personal pronouns. The impetus for the publication of her 2016 anthology: Consensus on Peirce’s Concept of Habit: Before and Beyond Consciousness, derives from her longstanding fascination with how Peirce’s concept of habit relies chiefly upon index’s influence in event processing. Abstract: This inquiry illustrates how Peirce’s concept of habit-change is foundational to inference-making. A 1911 manuscript features how, within the initial five years, children translate dynamic belief structures into action-habits. Insightful belief structures recommending behavior change operate as primary agents to discover new meanings. Ultimately, these novel belief structures cultivate novel explanations to resolve real-world problems/unexpected consequences. Via index, paths are drawn offering viable solutions. Index serves a path-finder function, showing where to situate events within a sequential logical framework, informing the abducer how to proceed from consequences to premises and from one premise to another. Via index, abducers gain increased physical and mental control over logical