Gilbert Ryles The Concept of Mind Essay - 2412 Words

Gilbert Ryles The Concept of Mind In The Concept of Mind Gilbert Ryle attempts, in his own words, to explode the myth of Cartesian dualism. His primary method in this endeavour is to explain why it is a logical error to describe minds and bodies with semantically similar language; while secondarily, he proposes that even to speak of minds as a second-order ontology is to take the first step in the wrong direction towards intellectual clarity. Thus, with the desire to arrive at this hypothetical locale, the following peripatetic discussion will set out with Ryle at his point of departure, viz. Descartes Myth; it will then survey the lay-of-the-land at Ryles mapped out midway point, viz. Self-Knowledge; and from there, judge†¦show more content†¦The category-mistake is precisely the error that Ryle accuses philosophers to have made when describing minds, and also, when describing bodies; for these thinkers have clumsily referred to these things as minds and bodies; i.e. things of the same logical type. The res ult of this mistake, according to Ryle, is a conflation of causal ideas. Therefore, because physical events can be described as adhering to physical laws, theorists have assumed that mental events must adhere to mental laws. And just as physical phenomena occur outside the mind and are publicly witnessable, so too, following the mistaken logic, must mental phenomena occur inside the mind. Further proof of this conflation of concepts is found by looking at how the Mind has been described, i.e. as a private theatre attended by one alone. Following The Myth then, there must be two different types of existence -- one having physical status, the other having mental status: somewhat as the faces of coins are either heads or tails...so it is supposed, some existing is physical existing, other existing is mental existing.3 Thus the physical, as matter existing in time and space, is subject to mechanical laws; whereas the mental, as consciousness existing only in time, is subject to para-mechanical laws. According to Ryle it is this type of reasoning that is responsible for the familiar philosophical embarrassment, namely: how is it possibleShow MoreRelatedEssay on Gilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind1107 Words   |  5 PagesGilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind Gilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind (1949) is a critique of the notion that the mind is distinct from the body, and is a rejection of the philosophical theory that mental states are distinct from physical states. 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