Abitudini e follia nell’Antropologia hegeliana

Hegel’s treatment of habits, in the section on Anthropology, is preceded by an examination of the various forms of madness (idiocy, paranoia, delirium or schizophrenia) which, according to Hegel, are due to the identification of the Self with its particular determinations, that is, to its inability to set itself up as their ideal moment: while unifying them, it negates their unilaterality and absoluteness. This systematic construction is important, because it shows how habits are understood by Hegel as a moment of liberation in and from nature, a moment of constitution of the Self, which can fail to the extent that the Self remains entangled in its own particularities, i. e. also in its own habitual behaviors.