Habit and the Nature of Second Nature.

The Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard speaks of “the power of habit”; the Greek philosopher Aristotle speaks of habit as a “second nature.” As writers, philosophers, and social scientists have often observed, habits are pervasive in all forms of human activity: habits allow us to develop our physical capacities; to become fluent speakers in a language; to develop sophisticated forms of thinking; to act in unison with others; to identify ourselves as members of a cultural community; and to never have to re-create the world anew, every time we awake from sleep—to mention just a few examples. Given this diverse presence of habit, it is surprising that the question of what habits are—how they are acquired, exercised, and retained—has not received sustained theoretical attention. We still lack a comprehensive theory of habits that would not either be extremely selective in its range of examples or extremely reductive in its understanding. The aim of this research project is to critically investigate the function and significance of habits. At the center of this research is the idea that any sharp distinction between habitual and spontaneous actions proves too rigid for a clear and comprehensive understanding of the many ways in which habits structure human experience; rather than a rigid distinction, this project will attempt to develop key insights into the permeable membrane between habit and act. An important result of this research project will consist in arguing for the positive as well as negative forms of habit: on the positive side, habits underpin the possibility of group and social existence, culture, and the formation of an individual’s mental and physical talents; on the negative side, habits also can become entrenched in our ways of thinking and perceiving, thus preventing us from understanding what is does not conform to our pre-established, i.e., habitual, ways of thinking. The nature of our second natures, as creatures of habit, is thus richly ambivalent. It is this ambivalence that expresses something essential about our human existence and the power of our habits.