Habit as individual and social Institution in Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

The theme of habit, both individual and social, can be interpreted in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy in the light of the dynamics of the institution. We are never completely free nor completely enslaved by a habit: there is no predetermined outcome of behaviors, but a dialectic between structure and relative variation. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role and functioning of habit, focusing on the following aspects: (1) the difference between routine and skill, and the generalization through transfert or analogy, (2) the capacity of anticipation and its connection with the notion of implexe proposed by Paul Valéry, (3) the intertwining of the two level of individual habit and social costume in the pre-personal “inter-world”. As a conclusion, the paper argues for the key role of habit in the indirect ontology as a way of describing the relationship between man and Being.