Subject of Habit, Subject to Habit : Félix Ravaisson and Phenomenology of Habit

Abstract

Under what conditions can human being be appropriately characterized as a "subject"? The article approaches this question in a particular domain: it focuses on the relation between subject and habit. If a subject can acquire and lose habits, what does it imply for our concept of the subject? The article analyzes this question in the work by F.

Ravaisson (Of Habit) and in the phenomenological accounts of habit developed by M. Merleau-Ponty and P.

Ricoeur.

Keywords

• subject
• philosophy
• phenomenology
• habit
• Ravaisson
• Ricoeur
• Merleau-Ponty