“Peirce on Habits represents an important contribution to discussions of habit in philosophy and a crucial development of Peirce studies. It will serve as an important scholarly landmark for years and decades to come.”

Mark Sinclair, Queen's University Belfast

In recent decades, Charles Sanders Peirce has been an important figure in diverse fields, and the notion of habit is at the center of his scientific, pragmatist, logical, psychological, and metaphysical reflections; it can be considered to be a key to the whole of his multifaceted research. Curiously, however, there is no monograph entirely focused on the notion of habit in Peirce. Simone Bernardi della Rosa explores for the first time the broad and entirely transdisciplinary territory that emerges from the author's considerations. The result is a very rich work, both in terms of its analytical capacity and its numerous references to our present time. In this sense, the book is not just a work on Peirce, but a work with Peirce, making a crucial contribution in the fields of cognitive, semiotic, and cultural studies. If we are “creatures of habits”—if we are in habits, and not habits in us—how should we interpret self and self-control? And how should we understand and transform the habitual practices that move us?

Rossella Fabbrichesi, Università degli Studi di Milano

“The beauty of habit-taking lies in the universality of this process, since it characterizes all life; in its individuality, since it is formed personally; and in its sociality, since mutual understanding of unique individuals is possible through it. Habit concerns permanent tension between replication and individuation. Through Charles Peirce, habit became one of the central concepts in semiotics. Organisms ("we") can be defined as creatures of habit, says Simone Bernardi della Rosa. Habit is the essence of knowledge, he continues. And our possibilities emerge from a habitual background. Peirce on Habits: Developing a Pragmatist Ontology book is a rich contribution to the semiotic analysis of habit as such.”

Kalevi Kull, University of Tartu

“Bernardi della Rosa’s book is a comprehensive account of the notion of habit in Peirce and guidance towards a much-needed pragmatist approach to the contemporary philosophy of habits. It accounts for our being “creatures of habits” in a fresh and precise way, philosophically and existentially.”

Giovanni Maddalena, University of Molise

“This historically accurate and theoretically assertive reconstruction of Peirce's thought enables us to understand the deep philosophical meaning of the saying that human beings are 'creatures of habit.' Moving comfortably between classical metaphysics and contemporary debate, the author brilliantly demonstrates the originality and current relevance of Peirce's philosophy, contributing to the rediscovery of the ontological temporal structure of habit: what makes us creatures “always waiting for further determination,” defined by the expectations we harbor toward the future and the anticipations that habit makes possible.”

Italo Testa, Università degli Studi di Parma