Habits are not entirely automatic

Dreyfus held that we are experts at our daily habitual routines and that our daily habits will be guided by expert-level perception and intuition. It means that we will think only of one course of action for each situation. But his view of habits is too mindless and mechanical.

While agreeing that habits facilitate intelligent behaviour by shaping perception, John Dewey denies that our habitual responses become entirely automatic. For him, the more numerous our habits, the wider the field of possible observation.