Habit is the condensation of an organism’s environment into its constitution.

Evidence

The very materials of the inorganic, subjected to an immediate contraction, are what make up the organism. In the core of its being, the living organism is nothing but the reduction and condensation of the elements of its environment: water, air, the molecules of nitrogen and carbon. What results from such a contraction is, literally, habitus, at once the internal disposition and the general constitution of the organism. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 507

Categorization

• XREF: This is the theoretical root for her later claim that the brain is nothing but condensed social/environmental material — neural plasticity as habitus. Strong connection to her stated brain work. — connects to: Habit is spirit’s reduction of nature into possessable logical determinations — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1052; Habit transforms contingent acts into essential determinations of being. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 601; Habit is the process whereby contingent determinations become essential — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 601
• DEFINE: Shows what Hegel means literally by habitus: not habit as custom but the material contraction of environment into organic constitution — etymologically grounded.

Broader Connections

• Habit is spirit’s reduction of nature into possessable logical determinations #expands (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1052
• Habit transforms contingent acts into essential determinations of being. #expands (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 601
• Habit is the process whereby contingent determinations become essential #expands (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 601