Abstract
In this paper, a complex investigation of the notion of second nature is being conducted with a primary focus on the philosophy of S. Kierkegaard.
The idea of a second nature closely connects to habituality and to the possibility of incorporating habits. After analysing a broader tradition of the idea of a second nature (Cicero, Hegel, Nietzsche, but also Darwin), the paper proposes a different reading of the hereditary sin in the late writings by Kierkegaard.
In such context, the progress of civilization equals to an increase in habitualized behavior which is being incorporated and becomes hereditary in a somatic way. The paper is concluded by a discussion of the idea of habituality, corporaneity, and performative speech acts in Butler and the implications of the idea of a second nature (in the sense of somatic habituality) in the debates of transgender issues.