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Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Habit’ (pub. 20.10.15-12:36). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-some-consequences-four-incapacities-7.
Term: 
Habit
Quote: 

Attention produces effects upon the nervous system. These effects are habits, or nervous associations. A habit arises, when, having had the sensation of performing a certain act, m, on several occasions a, b, c, we come to do it upon every occurrence of the general event, l, of which a, b and c are special cases. That is to say, by the cognition that

Every case of a, b, or c, is a case of m,

is determined the cognition that

Every case of l is a case of m.

Thus the formation of a habit is an induction, and is therefore necessarily connected with attention or abstraction. Voluntary actions result from the sensations produced by habits, as instinctive actions result from our original nature.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1868). Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2, 140-157.
References: 
W 2:232-3; CP 5.297
Date of Quote: 
1868
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-some-consequences-four-incapacities-7