Habit and Automatism. Two Opposite Paths

This essay explores different ways of understanding the relationship between habit and automatism, starting from the notion of ‘spontaneity’ implied in the double law of habit. The first path highlights the risks of automatism, viewing it as a mechanical and passive mode of action, as seen in the works of Maine de Biran, Ribot, and Dumont. The second path, which originates in the nineteenth century with Ravaisson and Fouillée, suggests a different view of habit and automatism. In the twentieth century, this perspective will reemerge in various forms in the thought of Merleau-Ponty, Ricoeur, Deleuze, and Guattari.