The Power of Embodied Habit and the Limits of Intellect

- Ліпін, М.В. (orcid.org/0000-0003-0940-088X) (2025) The Power of Embodied Habit and the Limits of Intellect Pedagogical innovation: ideas, realities, perspectives, 2 (35). pp. 20-28. ISSN 2413-4139

Text ПІ(2)35-2025_13-01-20-28.pdf Download (327kB)

Abstract

The article examines the role of habit as a key factor in the formation of creative thinking and practical human activity in the educational context. It demonstrates that thinking, intellect, and corporeality do not exist in isolation, but develop through interaction with others and through engagement in practical activity in the world. Habit functions as a “second nature”, embodying experience in bodily practices and enabling both creative freedom and refl ective transformation of reality. The author emphasizes that education should focus not only on the transmission of knowledge, but also on the cultivation of open, flexible, and creative practices of thinking and acting. The article argues for rethinking pedagogy as a process of human development realized through bodily experience, habit, and collaborative activity. To some extent, this emphasis on corporeality can be interpreted as a consequence of Nietzsche’s critique of metaphysics, in which the Platonic hierarchy of the spiritual and the corporeal was not entirely dismantled but rather inverted: the dichotomy itself remained, although its value poles were radically transformed. Despite the scale of these intellectual shifts, contemporary research practices largely continue to focus on the analysis of isolated consciousness and cognitive operations. As a result, pedagogical theory and practice often privilege intellectual and cognitive capacities as primary indicators of human potential, reflecting a long-standing tradition rooted in the Cartesian dualism of mind and body. Within this paradigm, the body is frequently treated as secondary or merely instrumental, while creativity and cognition are associated predominantly with the “spiritual” sphere, abstracted from practical experience and sensory engagement with the world. The analysis presented demonstrates that human corporeality cannot be reduced solely to biological parameters or individual cognitive processes. The body functions as a space of intersubjectivity, in which experience is always shaped by the presence and gaze of others. Within this intercorporeal dimension, culture emerges as an expanded, “inorganic” human body, as cultural artifacts encode human abilities, modes of action, and capacities for self-transformation. In this sense, corporeality appears as a dynamic mode of being-in-the-world, realized through mutual openness and co-presence. This perspective allows education to be understood not as an external supplement to the human being, but as a fundamental condition of sensory and practical participation in the shared world of culture.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	habit; body; intellect; education; intellectualization; verbalism; human development.
Subjects:	Science and knowledge. Organization. Computer science. Information. Documentation. Librarianship. Institutions. Publications > 1 Philosophy. Psychology Science and knowledge. Organization. Computer science. Information. Documentation. Librarianship. Institutions. Publications > 3 Social Sciences > 37 Education > 37.01/.09 Special auxiliary table for theory, principles, methods and organization of education > 37.01 Fundamentals of education. Theory. Policy etc.
Divisions:	Institute of the gifted child > Philosophy and Methodology of Human Innovative Development Department
Depositing User:	н.с. Олена Василівна Онопченко
Date Deposited:	27 Jan 2026 14:48
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2026 14:48
URI:	https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/id/eprint/748267

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item