On habit / Clare Carlisle.

On habit / Clare Carlisle.

9780415619141 (paperback)
0415619149 (paperback)
9780415619134 (hardcover)
0415619130 (hardcover)

New York : Routledge, 2014.

English

xii, 154 pages ; 20 cm.

B105.H32 C37 2014

128/.4

In this thought-provoking book Clare Carlisle examines habit from a philosophical standpoint. Beginning with a lucid appraisal of habit's philosophical history she suggests that both receptivity and resistance to change are basic principles of habit-formation. Carlisle shows how the philosophy of habit not only anticipates the discoveries of recent neuroscience but illuminates their ethical significance. She asks whether habit is a reliable form of knowledge by examining the contrasting interpretations of habitual thinking offered by Spinoza and Hume. She then turns to the role of habit in the good life, tracing Aristotle's legacy through the ideas of Joseph Butler, Hegel, and Félix Ravaisson, and assessing the ambivalent attitudes to habit expressed by Nietzsche and Proust. She argues that a distinction between habit and practice helps to clarify this ambivalence, particularly in the context of habit and religion, where she examines both the theology of habit and the repititions of religious life. She concludes by considering how philosophy itself is a practice of learning to live well with habit. -- from back cover.

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thinking in action.

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