所有と習慣 (完)

Abstract

Habit is habitus, i.e., something that has been acquired and possessed by man. While nature has no habit, man acquires it; the very formation of human character or personality is made possible by means of habit. Already in 1803 Maine de Biran discussed in detail the influence of habit over thinking, volition and emotion. This theory of habit is to this day the traditional basis of French philosophy. Indeed, those who want to grasp existence as possession cannot afford to ignore the problem of habit. In the latter half of his paper the present writer attempts to discuss the problem of cognition. Viewed from his understanding of human existence, cognition is not merely intellectual knowledge but a phenomenon of life deeply rooted in human life itself. To know means to share life with other things and beings. The French word connaissance means literally con-naître, namely, to come into life together. The main purpose of the paper is to prove the author's thesis by means of the conception of detentio. The phenomenological school says consciousness is intentio. But our mind does not only intend something; it must also grasp what it has intended so that this becomes its actnal possession.