ARTICOLI / 6 / Alessandro De Cesaris
Between praxis and technology. A mediological analysis of the notion of habitus
The article offers an original theoretical framework for the analysis of the notion of habitus throughout the history of ideas, as well as in the contemporary debate. According to the proposed approach, this notion works as a theoretical operator that mediates between a vast variety of polarized conceptual couples: to be/to have, potency/actuality, subject/object, inside/outside. Among those, a defining aspect of the notion of habitus is the tension between the domain of practices and the domain of things. The paper argues that many different uses of the notion of habitus in the Western tradition can be understood as different ways to balance the tension between these two structural elements. To prove this hypothesis, the analysis focuses on some paradigmatic uses of the notion of habitus, from Ancient Greece (Aristotle) up to the contemporary debate (Bourdieu, Gehlen, media theory). The study shows that while these two components of the notion of habitus – a practical and an objectual dimension – have always been present, in the last century the objectual dimension has gained a certain priority. For this reason, it is possible to speak of a technological habitus, and to interpret media theory as a way to rethink the relationship between habit, agency and the structure of subjectivity.
