Repeated external change becomes internal change through reversal of passivity into activity

Evidence

Nevertheless, one can sometimes “will” oneself into future action indirectly. One can predict well enough how one would act in certain circumstances and can therefore sometimes set matters up to stimulate a particular response. For example, I may know that, once I get out of bed in the morning, I am really up and I will not return to sleep. Therefore I set my alarm clock on the dresser a few feet from my bed, so that I will have to stand to stop its noise. I have then used an external device to get myself on my feet, but it is something internal about me that keeps me from returning to bed and to sleep. If the alarm were too near, I might often turn it off and go back to sleep. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 229 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The difference between these two views turns upon contrastive understandings of the relationship between bodily behavior and the pious self: for Amna, performative behavior may signify a pious self but does not necessarily form it. For the women I worked with, bodily acts (like weeping in prayer), when performed repeatedly, both in public and private, endowed the self with certain qualities: bodily behavior was therefore not so much a sign of interiority as it was a means of acquiring its potentiality. I use the term “potentiality” here in its Aristotelian meaning, in which it does not suggest a generic faculty or power, but is linked to the abilities one acquires through specifi kinds of training and knowledge. This usage of “potentiality” implies that in order to be good at something one undergoes a teleological program of volitional training that presupposes an exemplary path to knowledge-knowledge that one comes to acquire through assiduous schooling and practice. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1022 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Although repetition is emphasized, in practice the same exercise is never the same. Each repetition of an exercise invites the possibility of new understanding and the development of listening as a desirable practice or tool for living, learning and creative work. — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 100 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Aristotle conflates passivity and activity under motion as imperfect activity — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 410; Adaptation itself is a theoretical activity combining contemplation and exercise — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 512; Plasticity enables neurons to change difference and transform their program (+6 more)

Related

• Repeated bodily practices form the self rather than merely express it (similarity 0.80)
• Adaptation itself is a theoretical activity combining contemplation and exercise (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• People can will future actions indirectly by engineering external stimuli that trigger internal responses #exemplifies (0.85) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 229
• Repeated bodily practices form the self rather than merely express it #exemplifies (0.82) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1022
• Repeated exercises yield new understanding rather than identical experiences #exemplifies (0.80) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 100
• Plasticity enables neurons to change difference and transform their program #expands (0.75)