Habit and the History of Philosophy

For Aristotle, habit was a fundamental aspect of human nature; and for William James, it was the "enormous flywheel" of society. In both the history of philosophy and contemporary research, it is acknowledged as a fundamental topic in ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of action, and phenomenology. This major volume, written by a team of international contributors, is an outstanding collection that offers a thorough and diverse philosophical exploration of habit from the classical period to the modern day. Carefully edited to reflect the breadth of the subject, its 18 chapters are divided into four clear parts: Habit and Ancient Philosophy Habit and Early Modern Philosophy Habit and Modern Philosophy Contemporary Perspectives on Habit. Key topics, debates, and figures are covered such as the emotions, perception, free will, William James, John Dewey, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, John McDowell, and Hubert Dreyfus. Habit and the History of Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in the history of philosophy, ethics, phenomenology, philosophy of action, and pragmatism. It will also be extremely useful for those in related disciplines such as religion, sociology, and history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Jeremy Dunham and Komarine Romdenh-Romluc Part 1: Habit and Ancient Philosophy 1. Socrates on Habituation and Politics: Plato’s Gorgias 509c6-510a4 Leo Catana 2. Guided Practice Makes Perfect Habituation into Full Virtue in Aristotle’s Ethics Karen Margrethe Nielsen 3. Aristotle on the nature of ethos and ethismos Margaret Hampson 4. Making Progress: Epictetus on Habituation John Sellars Part 2: Habit and Early Modern Philosophy 5. Forming the Habit of Thinking Well: Descartes’ Reshaping of the Act of Reasoning Elodie Cassan 6. Habit in Hartley’s Reconciling Project: Between Christian Morality and the Usual Course of Nature Catherine Dromelet 7. Habit and Will in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy John Wright 8. Kant’s Account of Intellectual Habit and Moral Education Carl Hildebrand Part 3: Habit and Modern Philosophy 9. The Dispositional Account of Habits and Explanation of Moral Action in F.H. Bradley Dina Babushkina 10. Phenomenology as Vocation – A Project Instituted and Habituated by the Will Sara Heinämaa 11. Personal Acts, Habit, and Embodied Agency in Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception Justin White 12. Deleuze on Habit and Time; or, How to Get, and How not to Get, from Hume to Bergson Mark Sinclair Part 4: Contemporary Perspectives on Habit 13. Habit and the Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Christian Mysticism and the Philosophy of Religion Simone Kotva 14. Are habits inherited? A possible epigenetic route from Charles Darwin to the contemporary debate Mariagrazia Portera and Mauro Mandrioli 15. The Discourse Ecology Model: Changing the World One Habit at a Time Susan Notess 16. Habit and Practice Clare Carlisle 17. Habit-Formation: What’s in a Perspective? Will Hornett 18. Habits in Perception: A Diachronic Defence of Hyperinferentialism Cathy Legg. Index