Explaining Actions with Habits
American Philosophical Quarterly 43 (1):57 - 69 (2006)
| Abstract | From time to time we explain what people do by referring to their habits. We explain somebody’s putting the kettle on in the morning as done through “force of habit”. We explain somebody’s missing a turning by saying that she carried straight on “out of habit”. And we explain somebody’s biting her nails as a manifestation of “a bad habit”. These are all examples of what will be referred to here as habit explanations. Roughly speaking, they explain by referring to a pattern of a particular kind of behaviour which is regularly performed in characteristic circumstances, and has become automatic for that agent due to this repetition. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | No categories specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. Try with proxy. Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesStephen Yablo (2000). Seven Habits of Highly Effective Thinkers. In Bernard Elevitch (ed.), Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy Vol. 9. Philosophy Documentation Center.
Theodore Mischel (1966). Pragmatic Aspects of Explanation. Philosophy of Science 33 (1/2):40-60.
Bill Pollard (2006). Actions, Habits and Constitution. Ratio 19 (2):229–248.
Mark Sinclair (2011). Ravaisson and the Force of Habit. Journal of the History of Philosophy 49 (1):65-85.
Jonathan Ichikawa (2009). Explaining Away Intuitions. Studia Philosophica Estonica 2:94-116.
Elena Cuffari (2011). Habits of Transformation. Hypatia 26 (3):535-553.
Clare Carlisle (2005). Creatures of Habit: The Problem and the Practice of Liberation. Continental Philosophy Review 38 (1-2):19-39.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads42 ( #27,099 of 550,802 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 550,802 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
