Habitual Sophia? Retaining One’s Ability to Learn from within Each Lay-Professional Encounter

Abstract

Habits ought to be celebrated: they not only make us who we are, they also make us capable of wondrous feats, whether they be of a professional nature or not. Yet there are times when we wish we (or others) weren’t such creatures of habit. When a doctor or bleary eyed legal official insists on following patently inadequate, routine proceedings in spite of significant clues calling for critical, renewed engagement on their part, they fall prey to what I have called the ‘compromising’ aspect of habituation. The latter is concomitant with a degradation in the type of automaticity underlying the relevant habits: this degradation can be the result of a lack of aspiration, as shown by Annas, but it need not be. In a morally loaded, professional context, this degradation can also stem from what I refer to as a lack of ‘teleological plasticity’. The latter is not just a matter of adapting to changing circumstances, as is the case with a skill such a tennis (weather or type of play). It is also a matter of retaining a willingness to question the pertinence of the goals one associates with one’s professional practice (and its underlying habits). These goals are never settled in advance, hinging as they do upon the specificities of each lay-professional encounter.

Keywords: vitue, Annas, skill, expertise, professional ethics, professional virtue, habituation, habit, aspiration, goal adaptability, automaticity