CONTRIBUTI / 5 / Michele Pavan
Dynamics of Habit. Inference, Creation and Institution between Hume and Bergson
This paper investigates the articulation between inference, creation and institution in the process of habit. In the first part, through Hume’s thought, we considered the skeptical thesis according to which the inference is more a reality of habit than of reason. From here, in accordance with the bergsonian critique of associationist theories, we have seen how the habit of inferring doesn’t simply follow a principle of mechanical attraction, but presupposes the continuous creation of general ideas and, in particular, the activity of the spirit. Finally, the concept of institution has been identified as an act which, when it creates an association, and therefore a general idea, delivers at the same time what it creates to its future repetitions.
