Adaptation itself is a theoretical activity combining contemplation and exercise

Evidence

The dialectical movement uniting the inorganic components of the environment to the components of the organism is what Hegel calls ‘theoretical’. Every vital mechanism of adaptation is already in itself a certain modality of θεωρε!ν in the double meaning Aristotle emphasizes: to contemplate and to exercise. The living being is at once identical to and different from its non-living origins and surroundings. Because sameness and alterity are related, habit becomes a condition of adaptation in a double sense, being a form of contemplation – absorbing the environment, passively lending itself to what is given – and a kind of exercise, informing and transforming the surroundings, appropriating the given conditions for its organic functions. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 512

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that Hegel calls the dialectical organism-environment movement ‘theoretical’ in Aristotle’s doubled sense of contemplate-and-exercise, which is central to how plasticity operates.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s brain work: neural plasticity as both absorbing and transforming the environment recapitulates this Hegelian double sense. — connects to: The physically weaker dominate nature by deliberate adaptation rather than strength; The situation resembles an evolutionary environment structuring adaptation — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 444; Repeated external change becomes internal change through reversal of passivity into activity (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Repeated bodily practices form the self rather than merely express it #corroborates (0.85) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1022
• Habit makes the soul regain a second nature #corroborates (0.82)
• Habit elevates time to a second power enabling nature’s transition into spirit #expands (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 485
• Living abroad transforms thinking only through active adaptation #exemplifies (0.78) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2234
• Repeated external change becomes internal change through reversal of passivity into activity #expands (0.75)
• Repeated exercises yield new understanding rather than identical experiences #corroborates (0.75) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 100
• Cultural adaptation physically rewires the brain and perception #expands (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2238
• The situation resembles an evolutionary environment structuring adaptation #qualifies (0.72) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 444
• Habit both restores vitality and sedates the subject it sustains #complicates (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 610