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Gilbert Ryle
The Concept of the Mind (1949)
Wittgenstein’s Influence
 Philosophical Investigations (1953)

 Removed motivations for people to accept

Descartes’ idea of introspection.
• We can’t assume private mental entities.
• We need outer behavioral criteria
History
 Worked at the University of Oxford for his entire
academic career.
• Lecturer of philosophy at Christ Church College until WWII.
• Worked in military intelligence during WWII.
• Wrote The Concept of Mind while working as the professor of
metaphysics at Magdalen College.

 Thought the task of philosophy was to detect how

mistaken theories arise from linguistic idioms.
• Philosophers should reframe or analyze sentences to remove their
systematically misleading nature.
 Descartes Dichotomy Ryle

W W

M B P

Physicalist Idealist

Brain B M

Diagrams by Mason Cash

Descartes’ Dichotomy
BODY
 Physical
 Composed of matter or else is a
function of matter
 Subject to mechanical laws
 Can be inspected/observed by
outside observers
 Public (external)
 Exists in space and time
 Can’t be sure about physical
world; sense perception can be
mistaken
MIND
 Mental
 Composed of consciousness or
else is a function of consciousness
 Not subject to mechanical laws
 Can’t be inspected/observed by
outside observers
 Private (internal)
 Exists in time, but not space
 Can be sure about inner states and
processes; introspection cannot be
mistaken
Descartes’ Myth: The Official Doctrine
 “The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine” (121).
 Theory was popular and well accepted among thinkers.
 When Body dies, the mind continues on.
 Can directly know one’s inner states and processes through
introspection.
• Can be uncertain about physical world.
 Inner and outer are only metaphors because the mind can’t be spatially
in anything.
 Problem with theories about how mind and body influence each other.
• No direct causal connection.
 Implies two existences: something that happens either has the status of
a physical or a mental existence.
 Only in the Physical world can one mind affect another.
Introspection
 We have the best knowledge of our own mind (direct
knowledge).
• Freudian problems with this due to actions driven by our
subconscious.
• Supporters still say that under normal conditions, introspection
works.
 Immune from illusion, confusion, and doubt.
 No access to inner lives of others
• Can only infer based on behavioral observations.
• Can deny the existence of other minds.
• Only bodies can meet.
• Yet, we can relay to others that we have minds through speech.
The Absurdity of the Official Doctrine
 A philosopher’s myth
 False not in detail, but in principle
 One big mistake – a category mistake.
• “Represents facts of the mental life as if they belong to
one logical type or category (or range of types or
categories), when they actually belong to another”
(121).
• Mistakes by people who do not know how to use
concepts.
Category Mistakes
 Basic examples of category mistakes:
• UCF campus consists of a library, classrooms, bookstore, parking garages, and
also the University.
• In baseball, one can play as the pitcher, the catcher, right fielder, left, fielder. . .
and also team spirit.
• “I have hands, feet, legs, arms, torso, head, and also a mind.”
 Mind and Body category mistakes:
• Conjunctions:
 “human beings are a union of mind and body.”
 Compare: “she came home in a sedan chair and a floor of tears.”
• Disjunctions:
 “the cause is either mental or physical.”
 Compare: “He either bought a left glove and a right glove, or he bought a pair of
gloves.”
• Denying half:
 “there are no minds, only bodies.”
 “there is no pair of gloves, only a left glove and a right glove.”

Quoted text by Mason Cash