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Habit and Freedom

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The Freewill Question
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Abstract

On the subject of freedom of the will, Charles Sanders Peirce had an insight which is entirely remarkable and worthy of his genius. He pointed out that one thing which has made determinism seem so plausible in our scientific age is the phenomenon of habit in living creatures. Thus we know that a dog or a man can be trained to do certain things; habits can be cultivated, and once built up and established can be highly determinative of the organism’s future behavior. We have Pavlov’s dogs, trained to salivate at the ringing of a bell. And then we have the Pavlovs, trained to think “determinism” when they see such experiments.

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© 1971 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands

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Davis, W.H. (1971). Habit and Freedom. In: The Freewill Question. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3020-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3020-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-247-5101-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-3020-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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