Presented at the CiRCE Fall Regional Conference 2024.

Habits, even virtuous ones, concern what comes to us automatically and without reflection. The honest person does not typically struggle to be honest, he or she simply is. But one of the highest virtues, practical wisdom, concerns making virtuous judgments when there may be multiple options and we can’t act automatically; that’s why judgment is necessary. And the more we think about it, doesn’t the artist, too, acquire relevant habits and yet they are still able to be creative? In fact, their creative expression may be all the more effective precisely because of the excellent habits they’ve acquired. This talk will explore the analogy between practical wisdom and art, and consider how habits don’t constrain but enable freedom and creativity.