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However, how are we to explain the fact that - in the case of Bergson’s clock-strokes no less than with Hume’s causal sequences - we feel ourselves in effect so close to the mystery of habit, yet recognize nothing of what is ‘habitually’ called habit? Perhaps the reason lies in the illusions of psychology, which made a fetish of activity. Its unreasonable fear of introspection allowed it to observe only that which moved. It asks how we acquire habits in acting, but the entire theory of learning risks being misdirected so long as the prior question is not posed - namely, whether it is through acting that we acquire habits … or whether, on the contrary, it is through contemplating? Psychology regards it as established that the self cannot contemplate itself. This, however, is not the question. The question is whether or not the self itself is a contemplation, whether it is not in itself a contemplation, and whether we can learn, form behavior and form ourselves other than through contemplation.
