The Aesthetic Category of Habitus: The Act of Differentiation
Abstract
This paper proposes a reconceptualization of habit at the intersection of aesthetic theory and contemporary cognitive science. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s notion of habitus in Difference and Repetition, it argues that this concept can enrich current discussions of habit within post-cognitivist and enactive frameworks. Contrasting with adaptational or mechanistic accounts, Deleuze’s habitus is presented as a dynamic of differentiating repetition that integrates body, perception, and action—thereby dissolving the dualism between automatism and creativity. The article engages with recent work in enactivist cognitive science as well as John Dewey’s theory of aesthetic experience. It aims to show that habitus, understood as an embodied, active form of memory and reorganization, offers a powerful conceptual tool for rethinking artistic creation and reception through a differential ontology.
Keywords
habitus, aesthetics, cognitive sciences, post-cognitivism, Gilles Deleuze, habit
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