Definitions HQ

A Habit (n.) cannot ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠itself be had, Aristotle warned, or there would be an infinite regress — and it is precisely in this place that modern thought set its subject.

A Habit (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the form in which potential exists: it turns a baby's vague 'could become a writer' into the real power of someone who writes.

Habit (n.) keeps ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠potential and act separate yet in relation; only as a habit of privation can a potential master itself without losing itself in action.

Habit (n.) wears ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠equipment down, Heidegger wrote: use itself falls into disuse and becomes merely habitual, until nothing but bare serviceability remains.

Habit (n.) rather ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠than freedom guided the souls in Plato's myth: Orpheus chose to be a swan, Ajax a lion, Agamemnon an eagle — each picking a new life out of the grudges of the old.