{"product_id":"a-history-of-habit-9781498511292","title":"A History of Habit","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom bookshelves overflowing with self-help books to scholarly treatises on neurobiology to late-night infomercials that promise to make you happier, healthier, and smarter with the acquisition of just a few simple practices, the discourse of habit is a staple of contemporary culture high and low. Discussion of habit, however, tends to neglect the most fundamental questions: What is habit? Habits, we say, are hard to break. But what does it mean to break a habit? Where and how do habits take root in us? Do only humans acquire habits? What accounts for the strength or weakness of a habit? Are habits something possessed or something that possesses? We spend a lot of time thinking about our habits, but rarely do we think deeply about the nature of habit itself.   Aristotle and the ancient Greeks recognized the importance of habit for the constitution of character, while readers of David Hume or American pragmatists like C.S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey know that habit is a centr\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe duality of habit—that which frees us and binds us—has fascinated philosophers for a long time. With historical breadth, interdisciplinary scope, and philosophical depth—tackling habit from the Greeks to the present, bringing psychology and sociology together with philosophy, and probing issues from the metaphysical to the practical—this is an excellent contribution to a perennially important topic. -- John Protevi, Louisiana State University\u003cbr\u003eHabit really does have a history, as this book shows, but of course in disconcertingly chaotic lives such as ours, habits are principles of continuity or consistency. Here, the contributions of a remarkable range of scholars from across traditions and disciplines elucidate the matter of habit in a manner itself both varied and continuous. -- Crispin Sartwell, Dickinson College\u003cbr\u003eThis volume is a welcomed addition to the recently revived interest in the significance of habit for understanding human action—an interest lost in much contemporary social science and philosophy. As this collection of papers amply attests, the concept of habit has a rich intellectual history full of explanatory power and contradictory evaluations from the classics to our modern period, from Aristotle to Bourdieu. This book challenges us to overcome the intellectual habit of neglecting the central place of habit in shaping human thought and action. -- David Swartz, Asbury University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Reflections on the Unreflected Part One: Classical Accounts of Moral Habituation Chapter 1: Habit, Habituation, and Character in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Chapter 2: The Roman Stoics on Habit Chapter 3: Aquinas on Habitus Chapter 4: Negotiating with a New Sovereign: Montaigne’s Transformation of Habit into Custom Part Two: Habits of Thought, Action, and Memory in Modernity Chapter 5: From Habits to Traces Chapter 6: Habit, Custom, History and Hume’s Critical Philosophy Chapter 7: Between Freedom and Necessity: Ravaisson on Habit and the Moral Life Chapter 8: A Moralist in an Age of Scientific Analysis and Skepticism: Habit in the Life and Work of William James Chapter 9: Habitual Body and Memory in Merleau-Ponty Part Three: The Application of Habit in Contemporary Theory Chapter 10: The Fly Wheel of Society: Habit and Social Meliorism in the Pragmatist Tradition Chapter 11: Oppression in the Gut: The Biological Dimensions of Deweyan Habit Chapter 12: Conceiving Things: Deleuze, Concepts, and the Habits of Thinking Chapter 13: Pierre Bourdieu’s Habitus","brand":"Lexington Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51040644268375,"sku":"9781498511292","price":43.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781498511292.jpg?v=1750947373","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-history-of-habit-9781498511292","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}