The unity and the stability of human behavior. An interdisciplinary approach to habits between philosophy and neuroscience

INTRODUCTION The study of learning and memory through routines is acquiring a growing interest in the present neuroscience. Many works focusing on “habit learning” highlight the relevance of such studies and much weight is given to it in the understanding of individual’s behavior. The aim of this paper is to connect the concept of habit that arises from a neurobiological viewpoint and from a philosophical one. This will require a precise terminological distinction and connection between the two fields from an interdisciplinary approach. One of the most recent studies of the use of the term “habit” in neuroscience is the review of Carol Seger y Brian Spiering, published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience in 2011. In this work, the authors make a historical evaluation of expressions “habit” and “habit learning” in these terms: “Habit” roughly corresponded to the resulting motor behavior [. . .], and habit learning to acquisition of these behaviors in an instrumental learning context. “Habit” presents therefore these characteristics: inflexible, slow or incremental, unconscious, automatic and insensitive to reinforcer devaluation. On the other hand, philosophical concept of habit (hexis, habitus) is not only— nor even mainly—related to a repetitive behavior, but to the control or “possession” of one’s action (se habere ad). According to this, “habitus” is closer to the concept of “quality” or “skill” than to that of “stereotype” and appears as a vehicle of free will. Apparently both approaches, neurobiological and philosophical, seem different and unconnected. Nevertheless, a possible bridge between them is the consideration of habit as “stable disposition for self-development.” In order to illustrate this statement, we will follow several steps throughout the paper. First, we will expose how the concept of life implies a kind of self-activity and self-control, which requires either stability and change at different levels. Second, we will deal with the neurobiological understanding of stable behavior as seen in neurobiological processes such as learning and memory, “habit learning,” etc. And thirdly, we will explain how the philosophical concept of “habit” corresponds to dispositive quality as control of one’s action. Finally, we will try to integrate the two perspectives.