The Dark Side of Habits. A Pragmatist Account

This paper aims at discussing the pragmatist contributions to the understanding of the dark side of habits, i.e., those features of habits which tend to hinder the intelligent reconstruction of our relations with ourselves, with others, and with the world. My hypothesis is that pragmatists provided interesting insights into these problematic aspects of habits. The structure of this paper aims at developing and discussing this hypothesis. In section 1, I will present Dewey’s theory of habits as an attempt to integrate James’ and Peirce’s contributions to the topic. In section 2, I will discuss the complicated relation between pragmatism and the unconscious, by analyzing Peirce’s (2.1) and Dewey’s (2.2) contributions to this subject. In section 3, I will discuss a second element of complication in the mainstream representation of pragmatist’s theory of habits: inertia. Specifically, I will try to show how Dewey was fully aware of the role that stiffened habits play in political and social crises and conflicts. In the conclusions, I will summarize the results of the discussions.