Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: To call human beings creatures of habit does not suggest that they are creatures of steady routines.A thing too often forgotten is that there is more than one variant of the concept of habit around, and that the underlying meanings of the term are radically different.This paper explicates the more comprehensive meaning of 'habit', such that this term refers to the process character, rather than routine character of human action.Moreover, it is assumed that the habitual process of action can be open for the acting subject's reflection even while it is going on, not only retrospectively.This interpretation of 'habit' has appeared twice in history.First in classic pragmatism, about a hundred years ago, and later, during the last twenty years or so, in what is sometimes called the embodied interpretation of cognitive science.This notion of habit is then compared with social-scientific notions of action and it is argued that it offers a more useful conceptual tool for the study of action.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Erkki Kilpinen
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2227639664