Habits and Will: Formal Essay

That’s just a habit I struggle with.”

“I can’t help it.”

“It’s just part of who I am. It can’t be changed. Get used to it.”

At some point or another in our lives, we have probably all said one of the previous sentences. Each of us has habits that are ingrained into our daily lives, and and for the most part, we feel as though there is nothing we can do about them. We assume habits are just a part of who we are and that it would be beyond us to try and stop them. While this idea about habit is the easiest to believe, a glance into “Habits and Will” by John Dewey shows us a drastically different viewpoint. “Habits and Will” goes into depth on the ideas of habits within the human life and how we as the bearers of such habits choose to handle them. The key idea of this work is that as humans, knowing the difference between right and wrong, we should be able to identify our bad habits, and that if we put forth the required work, we can end those habits through our actions—actions spurred on by willpower.
Dewey’s writing is full of examples and illustrations that aid his argument and ideas about habits. He starts by describing his understanding of habits, stating that they are actions that have a command—a strong hold—over us and oftentimes make us act in ways we are ashamed of, ways we do not want to acknowledge or admit to others (Dewey 17). He then describes what all habit requires from us: physical action, but most importantly, our own will. “All habits are demands for certain kinds of activity; and they constitute the self,” he writes, continuing, “In any intelligible sense of the word will, they are will” (18). Obviously, the author feels very strongly that habits, no matter what they may be, are our own actions—our own decisions— and that they come from our own will.
An illustration he uses to further prove his belief on actions controlled by will is that of a man with poor posture. Dewey describes to the reader how a person can have poor posture, be in full knowledge of his error, and want to correct his posture by standing up straight. However, unless the man physically wills his back and legs and muscles to correct his stance, his posture will remain poor. To paint a clearer picture for the reader, Dewey compares correcting one’s stance to putting out a fire. He describes how we may as well expect a fire to fizzle and die on verbal command if we believe we can break the habit of poor posture simply by thinking about it. “It is reasonable to expect a fire to go out when it is ordered to stop burning as to suppose that a man can stand straight in consequence of a direct action of thought and desire,” Dewey suggests, continuing, “The fire can be put out only by changing objective conditions; it is the same with rectification of bad posture” (20).  Man can hope for a fire to be put out or long for correct posture all he wants, but until he commits himself physically to the acts of refinement, the fire and his poor posture will remain in the same unaltered condition. This example aids Dewey in his claim that we can realize the bad habits in our life and want to rid ourselves of them, but unless we physically change our current condition, we will see no progress.
Dewey also spends a great amount of time discussing the reformation process from our habits. As an additional illustration, he describes how a man who wants to give up drinking should slowly replace his stronghold with a different habit—a different action. He suggests that the man will gradually lose his dependence on his bad habit and even find the desire to end the habit for good through gradually exchanging the former, negative action with a new, more positive one (23). However, an important element Dewey reminds us of is that when trying to rid ourselves of a bad habit through the act of taking on a new one, we should be careful to not constantly think about how we are replacing the old habit with a new habit. Dewey describes how if the man who is attempting to give up drinking by taking on a new habit thinks about trying to not drink, he will constantly be reflecting on his drinking habits and will more than likely revert to his former ways during a point of weakness: “(He) is doing what he can to initiate the acts which lead to drinking. He is starting with the stimulus to his habit” (23). Dewey proposes that to succeed in replacing a bad habit with a good one, one should try to replace it with something that would not constantly remind him that he is trying to rid himself of the old action. “In short,” he writes, “the man’s true aim is to discover some course of action, having nothing to do with the habit of drinking or standing erect, which will take him where he wants to go” (23-24).
Each of the author’s illustrations and analogies point back to his main belief—that we control our actions, even our bad habits, and that we have the ability to physically stop them through replacing them with new actions. His writing serves as a reminder that we are in control of our bodies and that bad habits are not simply a part of who we are. Habits can be resolved, but it requires physical and mental work. While Dewey’s thoughts on bad habits can be difficult to accept, there are many truths from which we can learn. It is easy for us to assume that our habits are simply a fixed element of our character, but according to “Habits and Will,” we have the ability to stop our bad habits once and for all.

Works Cited
Dewey, John. "Habits and Will". Introduction to Great Books: Third Series. Chicago, IL, Great Books Foundation 1990.