Habits

Caminhante, são teus rastos
o caminho, e nada mais;
caminhante, não há caminho,
faz-se caminho ao andar.
Ao andar faz-se o caminho,
e ao olhar-se para trás
vê-se a senda que jamais
se há-de voltar a pisar.
Caminhante, não há caminho,
somente sulcos no mar.
António Machado


Scientists have tended to think that to have a mind like ours, one must be able to think and calculate and deliberate as we do. In fact, to have a mind like ours, what is needed are habits like ours. Habits and skills are environmental in the sense that they are triggered by environmental conditions and they vanish in the absence of the appropriate environmental setting. We can reject the idea that we are autonomous islands of decision making, acting on the basis of careful scanning and sound judgmente. Our nature is more intimately entangled with our environment than that.
Out of Our Heads, Alva Noë

Links:
Alva Noë
Out of Our Heads