Habit etymologically converts having into a way of being

Evidence

With habit, a new form of the soul’s relation to its body comes into view, and this delivers the spirit from the threat of madness. In the etymology of the word ‘habit’ we discover the Latin word habere: habit is a way of ‘having’, and, in this sense, a kind of possession, a property. We see the same semantic connection between the Greek word ις which derives from the verb “ειν. This verb means ‘to have’, but as soon as it is followed by an adverb, it changes its meaning to include ‘the state of being in one way or another’. #Εειν is therefore a particular kind of having which becomes a way of being. Hegel brings out here the sense of a ‘having’ derived from a ‘mechanism’. Habit is in truth ‘mechanism of self-feeling’ (Mechanismus des Selbstgefühls). — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 384

In the etymology of the word ‘habit’ we discover the Latin word habere: habit is a way of ‘having’, and, in this sense, a kind of possession, a property. We see the same semantic connection between the Greek word ις which derives from the verb “ειν. This verb means ‘to have’, but as soon as it is followed by an adverb, it changes its meaning to include ‘the state of being in one way or another’. #Εειν is therefore a particular kind of having which becomes a way of being. Hegel brings out here the sense of a ‘having’ derived from a ‘mechanism’. Habit is in truth ‘mechanism of self-feeling’ (Mechanismus des Selbstgefühls). — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 384

Categorization

• DEFINE: Traces the semantic chain from habere (to have) through Greek εειν to habit as ‘mechanism of self-feeling’ — the etymological heart of the concept.
• XREF: The ‘having becomes being’ move should connect to the reader’s brain-plasticity work — habit as embodied self-possession that constitutes identity rather than merely accompanies it. — connects to: All concrete desires reduce to having, doing, or being — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1349; The desire to do ultimately reduces to a desire to be; The concept of having may reduce to being or doing like other categories (+10 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 384

Broader Connections

• Habit transforms contingent acts into essential determinations of being. #corroborates (0.95) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 601
• Habit makes the soul regain a second nature #corroborates (0.85)
• Habit is an intentionally-produced alteration that defines how humans acquire form #expands (0.80)
• Repeated bodily practices form the self rather than merely express it #expands (0.75) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1022