Gilbert Ryle

1
Gilbert Ryle

• The Concept of the Mind (1949)

2
Wittgensteins Influence

• Philosophical Investigations (1953)
• Removed motivations for people to accept
  Descartes idea of introspection.
• We cant assume private mental entities.
• We need outer behavioral criteria

3
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.

4
Descartes Dichotomy
Ryle
Physicalist
Idealist
Diagrams by Mason Cash
5
Descartes Dichotomy

• Body

• Mind

• 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
• Cant be sure about physical world sense
  perception can be mistaken

• Mental
• Composed of consciousness or else is a function
  of consciousness
• Not subject to mechanical laws
• Cant 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

6
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 ones inner states and
  processes through introspection.
• Can be uncertain about physical world.
• Inner and outer are only metaphors because the
  mind cant 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.

7
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.

8
The Absurdity of the Official Doctrine

• A philosophers 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.

9
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