Habit converts learned subjection into free action

Evidence

At this point the term νθρωπς makes its appearance. Since Aristotle presents this term as defining that entity most likely to develop habits, it will serve in two cases as a privileged example. To explain the originary unity of πσειν and νεργε!ν Aristotle uses the example of the man who acquires the habit of knowledge. Leaving behind his initial state of ignorance, man is subjected to the effects of his apprenticeship, his learning. But, as soon as knowledge is actually gained, this ‘subjection’ becomes the possibility of an actualization, and hence of an action: man has the power freely to exercise his knowledge. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 404

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains hexis acquisition as the passage from passivity (pathein) to activity (energeia), the mechanism of habitual knowledge.
• XREF: connects to: Sliding achieves mastery in depth without plunging into matter — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1360; Consciousness freely constitutes actions as performable through possibilization; Everyday bodily actions resist full description yet come to us effortlessly — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 727 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Habit transforms contingent acts into essential determinations of being. #expands (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 601
• Learning-by-alteration and actualizing-a-habit are two different kinds of transition #complicates (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 445
• Habit is an intentionally-produced alteration that defines how humans acquire form #qualifies (0.75)