Legal education and the 'idealistic student': using Foucault to unpack the critical legal narrative

It appears that few of the students holding ‘socially idealistic’ goals upon entering law school actually maintain these upon graduation. The critical legal narrative, which explains and seeks to act upon this shift in the graduate’s ‘legal identity’, posits that these ideals are repressed through power relations that create passive receptacles into which professional ideologies can be deposited, in the interests of those advantaged by the social and legal status quo. Using the work of Michel Foucault, this paper unpacks the assumptions underpinning this narrative, particularly its arguments about ideology, power, and the subject. In doing so, it will argue this narrative provides an untenable basis for political action within legal education. By interrogating this narrative, this paper provides a new way of understanding the construction of the legal identity through legal education, and a new basis for political action within law school.

And the winner is...? : Thinking about Australian book awards in the library

Among their many duties, librarians occupy and must negotiate a space between the dreamed-of library and the all-too-real culture industries. This is perhaps most visible in the competition between pragmatism and idealism in text selection and collection development, and in one commonly-used tool thereof: the book award. This paper considers the possibilities and problematics of Australian book awards in libraries and librarianship.

Filosofins renässans eller modern mystik : Bergsondebatten i Finland

The study examines the debate in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century surrounding the philosophy of Henri Bergson. Both within as well as outside of academic philosophy Bergsonism was adapted to the philosophical and cultural landscape in Finland by a process of selective appropriation. The ambiguous relationship between the sender and the receiver is accentuated in reference to philosophical celebrities such as Bergson, whose reputations spread more quickly than the content of their philosophy and whose names are drawn into the political and social discourse. As a philosophical movement the aim of Bergsonism was to create a scientific philosophy of life as an alternative to both idealism and modern empirical and antimetaphysical currents, during a period when European philosophy was searching for new guidelines after the collapse of the idealistic system philosophies of the 19th century. This reorientation is examined from a Finnish viewpoint and in the light of the process of intellectual importation. The study examines how elements from an international discourse were appropriated within the philosophical field in Finland against a background of changes in the role of the university and the educated elites as well as the position of philosophy within the disciplinary hierarchy. Philosophical reception was guided by expectations that had arisen in a national context, for example when Bergsonism in Finland was adjusted to a moral and educational ideal of self-cultivation, and often served as a means for philosophers to internationalize their own views in order to strengthen their position on the national stage. The study begins with some introductory remarks on the international circulation of ideas from the point of view of the periphery. The second section presents an overview of the shaping of the philosophical field at the turn of the 20th century, the naturalism and positivism of the late 19th century that were the objects of Bergson s critique, and an introduction to the attempts of a philosophy of life to make its way between idealism and naturalism. The third and main section of the study begins with a brief presentation of the main features of the philosophy of Bergson, followed by a closer examination of the different comments and analyses that it gave rise to in Finland. The final section addresses the ideological implications of Bergsonism within the framework of a political annexation of the philosophy of life at the beginning of the 20th century.

Complicated Presence : The Unity of Being in Parmenides and Heidegger

The attempt to refer meaningful reality as a whole to a unifying ultimate principle - the quest for the unity of Being - was one of the basic tendencies of Western philosophy from its beginnings in ancient Greece up to Hegel's absolute idealism. However, the different trends of contemporary philosophy tend to regard such a speculative metaphysical quest for unity as obsolete. This study addresses this contemporary situation on the basis of the work of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Its methodological framework is Heidegger's phenomenological and hermeneutical approach to the history of philosophy. It seeks to understand, in terms of the metaphysical quest for unity, Heidegger's contrast between the first (Greek) beginning or "onset" (Anfang) of philosophy and another onset of thinking. This other onset is a possibility inherent in the contemporary situation in which, according to Heidegger, the metaphysical tradition has developed to its utmost limits and thereby come to an end. Part I is a detailed interpretation of the surviving fragments of the Poem of Parmenides of Elea (fl. c. 500 BC), an outstanding representative of the first philosophical beginning in Heidegger's sense. It is argued that the Poem is not a simple denial of apparent plurality and difference ("mortal acceptances," doxai) in favor of an extreme monism. Parmenides' point is rather to show in what sense the different instances of Being can be reduced to an absolute level of truth or evidence (aletheia), which is the unity of Being as such (to eon). What in prephilosophical human experience is accepted as being is referred to the source of its acceptability: intelligibility as such, the simple and undifferentiated presence to thinking that ultimately excludes unpresence and otherness. Part II interprets selected key texts from different stages in Heidegger's thinking in terms of the unity of Being. It argues that one aspect of Heidegger's sustained and gradually deepening philosophical quest was to think the unity of Being as singularity, as the instantaneous, context-specific, and differential unity of a temporally meaningful situation. In Being and Time (1927) Heidegger articulates the temporal situatedness of the human awareness of meaningful presence. His later work moves on to study the situational correlation between presence and the human awareness. Heidegger's "postmetaphysical" articulation seeks to show how presence becomes meaningful precisely as situated, in an event of differentiation from a multidimensional context of unpresence. In resigning itself to this irreducibly complicated and singular character of meaningful presence, philosophy also faces its own historically situated finitude. This resignation is an essential feature of Heidegger's "other onset" of thinking.

Passion vallassa : Hermostunut aika Minna Canthin teoksissa

Under the power of passion. The age of nervousness in Minna Canth s works This research contemplates the psychology of Minna Canth s characters through the historical image of man in late 19th century Europe. The central operative term of the study is passion , understood as a twofold philosophical concept that includes both desire and suffering. The method of this study is historical and contextual. The study interprets the passions and the psychology of Canth s characters as they were understood in their own time. The indicator of the relevant contexts is the realist and naturalist genre of Canth s works. New research on the genre of the time is also the basis of a new kind of psychological approach to Canth s works. The most important context of passion in Canth s works is the positivistic and pathological image of man at the end of the 19th century. Then, passion was widely discussed, and was perceived as a physiological phenomenon that influenced humans neurologically and caused different kinds of physiological symptoms and nervous disorders. But at the same time, passion was understood as a manifestation of human instincts and drives. The naturalistic literature of the day aimed at creating deterministic studies of human morality and psychology following Émile Zola s application of experimental science methods in his writing. The pathological image of man is most explicitly manifested in Canth s formerly unknown short story Lääkäri (Doctor, 1891), in which a doctor who is interested in psychology visits a jail to meet a peculiar criminal, a girl who feels no remorse for her multiple crimes. In other works of Canth the medically motivated viewpoint is more hidden in the deterministic narrative and depiction of the characters. The present study approaches the passion in Minna Canth s works through five thematic chapters, in witch characters are interpreted suffering from blind love, ennui, crippling romantic idealism, melancholy, guilt and nostalgia, and their stories can be prescribed as medical histories which depict the born of the passion and its development towards ruin. All protagonists are also manifestations of their own time. Canth criticises the modern life and its demands as well as social defects through the tragic stories of individuals. The study demonstrates that Canth did not, like previous research has suggested, wait until the 1890s before writing works of a psychological nature but had already written according to the psychological paradigm of her time in Työmiehen vaimo (1885). The social and psychological interests intertwine in Canth s works and are not exclusionary as has formerly been interpreted. Canth is also critical of the medical power implicit in the naturalist experimental method and this shows itself especially in her depiction of working class women.

Den brændende Fakkel : Om dobbeltgrebet i Knud Lyne Rahbeks liv og revolutionsroman

Professor Knud Lyne Rahbek was a novelist, playwright, poet, magazine editor, journalist, socialite person, host of the Bakkehus , historian, theatre manager, translator, publisher etc., but his versatility either side of 1800 is better known than read and more despised than understood. In terms of methodology, the thesis is based on biographical, historical and philological research, while at the same time making use of formalistic and close reading methods. This study begins and ends with 7th of February 1800, when Kamma and Knud Lyne Rahbek join the exiled P.A. Heiberg at the inn near Frederiksberg Castle. What falls between is an interpretation of Rahbek s works in the service of democracy, human rights and freedom of the press as a pragmatic navigation between activities - both subversive and legitimate. Posterity mistook this range as mere spinelessness, and Rahbek was relegated to the literary and historical margins as an anachronism and as a jack of all trades, who did not know what he really wanted and therefore flitted about in so many fields just to be present. But Rahbek s problem was not one of standpoint, but rather how to find a balance between totalizing attitudes and confrontations between rebellious idealism and deep-rooted absolutism, without foregoing his belief in enlightenment, humanism and tolerance. In this way, and also through his personal conduct, which at that time was seen as jovial bonhommie, he made his contribution to the development of modern democratic Denmark in the full awareness of a popular, peaceful and down-to-earth community. Rahbek s principal work about the event of the French Revolution, which provides the focus for the above, is Camill og Constance. Et Revolutions Skilderie (1799). For today s reader, the novel about the revolution is an obvious example of a historical novel, as it does not only provide fictionalized information about past events placing them in a generally accepted perspective of historical development, but also gives the characters qualities, which, in Rahbek s words, allows the real events to influence the fictional characters. From this point of view, the novel of the revolution has shifted the benchmark for the first real historical novel on the European literary scene back by fifteen years. Lacking the aura so easily foisted on fearless iconoclasts or tragic losers, Rahbek s contribution may seem modest in spite of its enormous volume; but only when it is not evaluated in its full context, which is the development of Denmark towards an international democratic society.

Getting mad may not mean getting even: The influence of drivers' ethical ideologies on driving anger and related behaviour

The current study explored the influence of moral values (measured by ethical ideology) on self-reported driving anger and aggressive driving responses. A convenience sample of drivers aged 17-73 years (n = 280) in Queensland, Australia, completed a self-report survey. Measures included sensation seeking, trait aggression, driving anger, endorsement of aggressive driving responses and ethical ideology (Ethical Position Questionnaire, EPQ). Scores on the two underlying dimensions of the EPQ idealism (highI/lowI) and relativism (highR/lowR) were used to categorise drivers into four ideological groups: Situationists (highI/highR); Absolutists (highI/lowR); Subjectivists (lowI/highR); and Exceptionists (lowI/lowR). Mean aggressive driving scores suggested that exceptionists were significantly more likely to endorse aggressive responses. After accounting for demographic variables, sensation seeking and driving anger, ethical ideological category added significantly, though modestly to the prediction of aggressive driving responses. Patterns in results suggest that those drivers in ideological groups characterised by greater concern to avoid affecting others negatively (i.e. highI, Situationists, Absolutists) may be less likely to endorse aggressive driving responses, even when angry. In contrast, Subjectivists (lowI, HighR), reported the lowest levels of driving anger yet were significantly more likely to endorse aggressive responses. This provides further insight into why high levels of driving anger may not always translate into more aggressive driving.

Konstruktiivisen linjakkuuden perusteita etsimässä : Systemaattinen analyysi John Biggsin esittämistä yliopisto-opetuksen lähtökohdista

The aim of this study is to explore by systematic textual analysis the crucial conceptions of constructive alignment and to reconstruct the concept of constructive alignment and examine the relation between conceptual relationships in John Biggs’s texts. In this study, I have also analyzed the presuppositions of the concept of constructive alignment and its possible implications. The research material includes Biggs’s (1996b; 2003) article entitled Enhancing Teaching through Constructive Alignment and book entitled Teaching for Quality Learning at University. The primary purpose of the systematic textual analysis is to reconstruct concepts and gain access to a new or more profound understanding of the concepts. The main purpose of the constructive alignment is to design a teaching system that supports and encourages students to adopt a deep approach learning. At the center of the constructive alignment are two concepts: constructivism in learning and alignment in teaching. A tension was detected between these concepts. Biggs assumes that students’ learning activities are primed by the teaching. Because of this it is not important what the teacher does. At the same time he emphasizes that teaching interacts with learning. The teacher’s task is to support student’s appropriate learning activities. On the basis of the analysis, I conclude these conceptions are not mutually exclusive. Interaction between teaching and learning has an effect on student’s learning activities. The most essential benefit of the model of constructive alignment is that Biggs brings together and considers teaching at the same level with learning. A weakness of Biggs’s model relates to the theoretical basis and positions of the concept of constructive alignment. There are some conflicts between conceptions of epistemology in Biggs’s texts. In addition, Biggs writes about constructivism also as conceptions of epistemology, but doesn’t consider implications of that position or what follows or doesn’t follow from that commitment. On the basis of the analysis, I suggest that constructivism refers in Biggs’s texts rather to constructivism in learning than philosophical constructivism. In light of this study, constructive alignment doesn´t lead to philosophical constructivism. That’s why constructive alignment stays out of idealism. Biggs’s way of thinking about teachers possibility to confronting students’ misconceptions and evaluate and assess students’ constructions support a realist purpose in terms of philosophical stance. Realism does not drift toward general problems of relativism, like lack of criteria for assessing or evaluate these constructions.

Aluesuunnittelu ja kestävä kehitys Luoteis-Venäjällä : Ympäristösuunnittelun mahdollisuus paikallisissa hallintatavoissa

In this Ph.D. thesis I have studied how the objectives of sustainable development have been integrated into Northwest Russian urban and regional planning, and how the Russian planning discourse has changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By analysing the planning discussion, processes, and strategic documents I have also investigated the use of power and governmentality in urban and regional planning. As a methodological foundation I have used an approach that I call geographical constructivism . It was possible to answer in a relevant manner the question of how sustainable development has become a part of planning in Northwest Russia through a discourse analysis of the planning discussion. During the last decades, the aim of sustainable development has become globally one of the most central societal challenges. Urban and regional planning has a central role to play in promoting this process, since many meta-level objectives actually take shape within its sphere. An ever more actual challenge brought by sustainable development is to plan regions and places while balancing the conflicts of the pressures of safeguarding a good environment and of taking into consideration social and economic needs. I have given these unavoidable conflicts of sustainable development a central place in my work. In my view, complementing instrumental and communicative rationality with conflict rationality gives environmental planning a well-equipped toolbox. Sustainable development can be enhanced in urban and regional planning by seeking open, and especially hidden, potential conflicts. Thus, the expressed thinking (mentality) and actions taken by power regimes in and around conflicts open an interesting viewpoint into Northwest Russian governmentality. I examine the significance of sustainable development in planning through Northwest Russian geography, and also through recent planning legislation and four case studies. In addition, I project my analysis of empirical material onto the latest discussion of planning theory. My four case studies, which are based on independent and separate empirical material (42 thematic interviews and planning documents), consider the republics of Karelia and Komi, Leningrad oblast and the city of Saint Petersburg. In the dissertation I argue how sustainable development is, in the local governmentalities of Northwest Russia, understood as a concept where solving environmental problems is central, and that they can be solved through planning carried out by the planning professionals. Despite this idealism, environmental improvements have been overlooked by appealing to difficult economic factors. This is what I consider environmental racism, which I think is the most central barrier to sustainable development in Northwest Russia. The situation concerning the social dimension of sustainable development is even more difficult, since, for example, the development of local democracy is not highly valued. In the planning discourse this democracy racism is explained by a short history of democracy in Russia. However, precisely through planning conflicts, for example in St. Petersburg, planning has become socially more sustainable: protests by local inhabitants have bypassed the poorly functioning representational democracy, when the governmentality has changed from a mute use of power to one that adopts a stand on a conflicting issue. Keywords: Russia, urban and regional planning, sustainable development, environmental planning, power and conflicts in planning, governmentality, rationalities.

Topeliaaninen usko : Kirjailija Sakari Topelius uskontokasvattajana

ABSTRACT The author Zacharias Topelius as a religious educator The present study concerns the author Zacharias Topelius (1818-98) as a religious educator. The study´s main questions are as follows: What is the theological and pedagogical content of Topelius books and how is his religious instruction linked with the history of his time. The primary sources are his educational books Naturens bok (The Book of the Nature, 1856), Boken om vårt land (The Book of our Land, 1875) and Evangelium för Barnen (Gospel for Children, 1893), as well as his storybooks Läsning för barn I-VIII (Reading for Children I-VIII, 1865-96). The dissertation concerns the his-tory of religious education. Its primary method is background-based systematic analy-sis. In Topelius children s books the view of God is characterised both as an omnipresent spirit and as Providence, who guides world history according to his plan. In addition to Lutheranism this view is also influenced by Nationalism and Romanticism. The theological content of the books emphasises instruction in Christian life that is natural to normative children s books. Topelius strongly expresses the importance of a personal relationship to God, an idealistic Christian view of one s fellow man and of one s own nation as well as the value of nature conservation. The books of Topelius were some of the first educational works on nature preservation in Finland. The didactic quality of Topelius children s books was high for 19th century Finland. Their main emphasis in terms of educational goals is on civilisation (Bildung), self-awareness, national solidarity and living idealism. The pedagogical argumentation is mostly based on theological, historical, social and rational reasoning. The primary principles in Topelius teaching are Christian nationalism, idealistic harmony and the agrarian bourgeois. Christian nationalism is the main element of Topelius religious education. He considers the fatherland as a God-given project and the taking care of it as a part of holy service. Idealistic harmony is seen as the comprehensive development of one s character in the sense of romantic idealism. The agrarian bourgeois principle combines the Finnish peasant tradition with the values of 19th century modern bourgeois culture. I have named Topelius vision of religious education the Christian national project of civilisation (Bildung). Its main theses are home, religion and fatherland. The author himself strongly believed in this vision and never questioned it despite its national chauvinism and theological inconsistency. The religious ideology represented in Topelius educational works and storybooks was popular among pedagogues during the whole era of the Finnish folk school. It fit per-fectly with the Christian national discourse stemming from 19th century ideological ten-dencies. Due to their appropriate content combined with their practical language and pedagogical methods, the books were popular both at school and in the home for a long period of time. Therefore the books of Topelius aptly symbolise the religious education of their time and manifest their author s pedagogical talent as a national religious educator and as a populariser of Christian nationalism. Topelius books have had a lasting influence on Finnish religiosity. Key words: Topelius, theology, religion, education, nationalism and national project

Roman Ingarden’s Objectivity vs. Subjectivity as a problem of Translatability

Ingarden (1962, 1964) postulates that artworks exist in an “Objective purely intentional” way. According to this view, objectivity and subjectivity are opposed forms of existence, parallel to the opposition between realism and idealism. Using arguments of cognitive science, experimental psychology, and semiotics, this lecture proposes that, particularly in the aesthetic phenomena, realism and idealism are not pure oppositions; rather they are aspects of a single process of cognition in different strata. Furthermore, the concept of realism can be conceived as an empirical extreme of idealism, and the concept of idealism can be conceived as a pre-operative extreme of realism. Both kind of systems of knowledge are mutually associated by a synecdoche, performing major tasks of mental order and categorisation. This contribution suggests that the supposed opposition between objectivity and subjectivity, raises, first of all, a problem of translatability, more than a problem of existential categories. Synecdoche seems to be a very basic transaction of the mind, establishing ontologies (in the more Ingardean way of the term). Wegrzecki (1994, 220) defines ontology as “the central domain of philosophy to which other its parts directly or indirectly refer”. Thus, ontology operates within philosophy as the synecdoche does within language, pointing the sense of the general into the particular and/or viceversa. The many affinities and similarities between different sign systems, like those found across the interrelationships of the arts, are embedded into a transversal, synecdochic intersemiosis. An important question, from this view, is whether Ingardean’s pure objectivities lie basically on the impossibility of translation, therefore being absolute self-referential constructions. In such a case, it would be impossible to translate pure intentionality into something else, like acts or products.

La abstracción formal y la validación del razonamiento inductivo

Resumen: Suele admitirse que uno de los problemas pendientes, al menos desde Hume, en la teoría de la ciencia es la justificación crítica de los procesos inductivos, que son los que siguen las ciencias experimentales, como son las ciencias naturales. Frente a las ineficaces explicaciones aportadas por el empirismo o neopositivismo, así como por los racionalismos o idealismos, que son radicalmente incapaces para resolver el problema, nosotros presentamos la respuesta del realismo aristotélico, basada en el correcto concepto de abstracción formal, ignorado o malentendido incluso por muchos aristotélicos tanto antiguos como modernos. La respuesta consiste, en suma, en ver que el término del proceso inductivo, en cuanto llega a conclusiones universales a partir de lo particular, debe estar mediado por un proceso previo de abstracción de la forma, bien entendida, en lo mismo concreto y particular. Ello permite ver que la conclusión universal no desborda las premisas, que es el problema clásico de la epagogé aristotélica.

Cultura e natureza no jovem Nietzsche: o problema da formação (bildung)

Dedicamo-nos ao estudo do modo como aparece a questão sobre a formação do ser humano no pensamento de Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), entendendo que ele dialoga com a antiguidade grega e com a tradição sobre a questão da formação (Bildung) na Alemanha dos séculos XVIII e XIX. Para tanto realizamos alguns apontamentos sobre o classicismo e o idealismo alemão, além do sentido e consequência dos princípios fundamentais da Aufklãrung. A pesquisa se desdobra a partir do modo como Nietzsche entende o sentido da arte em si mesma, e consequentemente, do modo como o seu agente, o artista, realiza um movimento que imita a dinâmica de existência da própria natureza; o que ocasiona primeiramente uma mudança na concepção do que seja obra de arte concepção fundamental ao pensamento sobre a Bildung já no século XVIII para determinar o que deve ser o homem. Com isso, é preciso rever os fundamentos sobre os quais se assentaram o humanismo alemão moderno, e ser redefinido o que é humanidade e o que é natureza e que relação há entre elas. Nesta revisão das definições que norteiam os direcionamentos da cultura por meio da formação dos indivíduos, realiza-se a crítica nietzscheana quanto às razões e metas dos meios de educação modernos e de sua institucionalização. Ao mesmo tempo que, por outro lado, refletimos sobre a proposta do que seria de fato a constituição de uma cultura que correspondesse ao ideal trágico de humanidade: ou seja, de uma formação que educasse para finalidades mais altas dos homens, que correspondessem à meta metafísica da natureza. O que é o homem? Quais são suas metas mais altas? O que é o mundo ou a natureza? O que é a arte? O que é a cultura? São estas questões fundamentais que norteiam esta dissertação, considerando-se a hipótese de que a idéia de formação em Nietzsche é uma forma de superar a Bildung clássica pautada na racionalidade e moralidade, mas de modo distinto à pretensão de superação das oposições proposta pelo idealismo.

Acendam as luzes ,O Mambembe voltou! De Artur Azevedo ao Teatro dos Sete, redenção e idealismo na invenção póstuma da belle époque teatral

Estudo do texto teatral O Mambembe, a partir dos contextos em que foi criado, em 1904, e depois reabilitado, para o público e para a crítica, 55 anos depois. A ótica da recepção destaca esta peça do conjunto da obra de Artur Azevedo, deixando entrever, principalmente a partir de uma possível ideologia de um teatro educador dos sentidos, as contradições do texto com o mundo da diversão teatral na entrada do século XX carioca, sua tentativa de certa forma de escapar a sua massificação, apelando ao passado e à promessa de um futuro mais artístico para o teatro. Na primeira parte se discutem as ideias inaugurais para o teatro de formação na modernidade, e como estas são catalisadas no Brasil em torno de um teatro que civiliza pela formação de almas, até a época de Artur Azevedo. Depois de explorar alguns aspectos históricos da época de O Mambembe, expõe-se um pequeno painel e algumas considerações teóricas sobre a indústria e a estrutura do teatro ligeiro da entrada para o século XX.Na segunda parte do trabalho, ligadas às questões teóricas sobre recepção teatral, são discutidas as noções de teatro e cultura de cada época, através de comentários e críticas de jornais. Depois de uma pequena exposição das mudanças ideológicas e culturais que se passaram no intervalo dos 55 anos entre uma montagem e outra, o trabalho termina com uma proposta de metaforologia do texto a partir das informações colhidas e resultados experimentados

A genealogical map of the concept of habit

The notion of information processing has dominated the study of the mind for over six decades. However, before the advent of cognitivism, one of the most prominent theoretical ideas was that of Habit. This is a concept with a rich and complex history, which is again starting to awaken interest, following recent embodied, enactive critiques of computationalist frameworks. We offer here a very brief history of the concept of habit in the form of a genealogical network-map. This serves to provide an overview of the richness of this notion and as a guide for further re-appraisal. We identify 77 thinkers and their influences, and group them into seven schools of thought. Two major trends can be distinguished. One is the associationist trend, starting with the work of Locke and Hume, developed by Hartley, Bain, and Mill to be later absorbed into behaviorism through pioneering animal psychologists (Morgan and Thorndike). This tradition conceived of habits atomistically and as automatisms (a conception later debunked by cognitivism). Another historical trend we have called organicism inherits the legacy of Aristotle and develops along German idealism, French spiritualism, pragmatism, and phenomenology. It feeds into the work of continental psychologists in the early 20th century, influencing important figures such as Merleau-Ponty, Piaget, and Gibson. But it has not yet been taken up by mainstream cognitive neuroscience and psychology. Habits, in this tradition, are seen as ecological, self-organizing structures that relate to a web of predispositions and plastic dependencies both in the agent and in the environment. In addition, they are not conceptualized in opposition to rational, volitional processes, but as transversing a continuum from reflective to embodied intentionality. These are properties that make habit a particularly attractive idea for embodied, enactive perspectives, which can now re-evaluate it in light of dynamical systems theory and complexity research.