Habit, sedimentation and institutions

In contrast to intellectualist and behaviorist conceptions of habit, recent enactivist discussions argue that habits reflect a type of contextualized intelligence. This enactive anti-intellectualist view is a close cousin to the pragmatist and phenomenological conceptions of habit as embedded in bod...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shaun Gallagher
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-12-01
Series:Cogent Arts & Humanities
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311983.2025.2480879
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Summary:In contrast to intellectualist and behaviorist conceptions of habit, recent enactivist discussions argue that habits reflect a type of contextualized intelligence. This enactive anti-intellectualist view is a close cousin to the pragmatist and phenomenological conceptions of habit as embedded in bodily modes of response and sedimented in modes of perception. The phenomenological concept of sedimentation, however, provides a way to understand how habits relate to social/cultural/institutional factors, not unlike Bourdieu’s concept of habitus (and in spite of Bourdieu’s criticism of Husserl). Despite some important differences between the phenomenological and enactive approaches to habit, I argue that the concept of sedimentation can enrich the enactive analysis, allowing for a dynamical understanding of the role played by social, cultural and institutional factors in habit formation, and the role played by habit in the formation of institutions.
ISSN:2331-1983