Habit functions paradoxically as both a force of death and of life

Evidence

A close reading of the Anthropology may reveal however that the procedures of habit serve not only as a force of death but also as a force for life. Because, if habit represents the dulling of life which gradually weakens the power of resistance and dynamism itself, it constitutes at the same time, in the course of its development, the vitality and persistence of subjectivity. Hegel declares: ‘Habit is, like memory, a difficult point in the organization in mental organization; habit is the mechanism of self-feeling, as memory is the mechanism of intelligence.’ He continues: ‘The form of habit applies to all kinds and grades of mental activity.’ — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 301

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines habit as the mechanism of self-feeling, parallel to memory as mechanism of intelligence — a foundational Hegelian definition.
• XREF: The dual valence of habit as both dulling and vital directly parallels plastic determinacy — habit is plasticity’s own self-fixation, crucial for the reader’s brain theory. — connects to: Marcuse rejected the innate death instinct in favor of life-preservation failing against circumstance — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 379; Habit both restores vitality and sedates the subject it sustains — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 610; Habit reconciles will and world until one wants what is (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Habit being simultaneously death and life — the very mechanism of subjectivity’s persistence is what weakens its dynamism — is a paradigm-level paradox central to this whole book.
• recurring: this claim recurs 3 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Habit both restores vitality and sedates the subject it sustains #exemplifies (0.95) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 610
• Habit reconciles will and world until one wants what is #expands (0.70)