Descartes Myth-Gilbert Ryle - 1044 Words

Gilbert RyleÂ’s The Concept of Mind Gilbert Ryle (1900-76) was a philosopher who taught at Oxford and who made important contributions to the philosophy of mind and to ordinary language philosophy. His most important writings included Philosophical Arguments (1945), The Concept of Mind (1949), Dilemmas (1954), Plato s Progress (1966), and On Thinking (1979). The Concept of Mind (1949) is a critique of the notion that the mind is distinct from the body, and it is a rejection of the theory that mental states are separable from physical states. According to Ryle, the classical theory of mind, as represented by Cartesian rationalism, asserts that there is a basic distinction between mind and matter. However, the classical theory makes a†¦show more content†¦Thus, the mind consists of various abilities or dispositions that explain such behaviors as learning, remembering, knowing, feeling, or willing. However, personal abilities or dispositions are not the same as mental processes or events. To refer to abilities or dispositions as if they are mental occurrences is to make a basic kind of category-mistake. The nature of a personÂ’s motives may be defined by the actions and reactions of that person in various circumstances or situations. The nature of a person s motives in a particular situation may not necessarily be determined by any hidden mental processes or intellectual acts within that person. Motives may be revealed or explained by a personÂ’s behavior in a situation. Ryle criticizes the theory that the mind is a place where mental images are apprehended, perceived, or remembered. Sensations, thoughts, and feelings do not belong to a mental world distinct from the physical world. Knowledge, memory, imagination, and other abilities or dispositions do not reside within the mind as if the mind were a space in which these dispositions could be situated or located. Furthermore, dispositions are not the same as behavioral actions; actions may, however, be explained by dispositions. Dispositions are neither visible nor hidden, because they are not in the same logical category as behavioral actions. Dispositions are not mental processes or intellectualShow 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. Ryle argues that the traditional approach to the relation of mind and body (i.e., the approach which is taken by the philosophy of Descartes) assumes that there is a basic distinction between Mind and Matter. According to Ryle, this assumption is aRead MoreDescartes Teachings On Dualism977 Words   |  4 Pages To understand how the dualist commits a category mistake, one must first understand Descartes’ teachings on dualism from the Meditations on First Philosophy. Firstly, Descartes sees the mind as an immaterial, non-physical soul. He believes that his thoughts can be altered but he can never be tricked into the thinking that he is thinking when he is not. While he has complete faith in the existence of his mind, he doubts the existence of his body and the existence of other people s minds. The reasonRead MoreThe Theory Of The Mind And Matter1023 Words   |  5 PagesMind Matter Gilbert Ryle’s writing Descartes Myth provides a challenge to the â€Å"official theory† of the mind. The â€Å"official theory† of the mind is defined as the separation of the mind and body. Ryle describes the separation of the mind and body as the mind existing apart from the physical world and the body existing in the world. He writes that the two entities, the mind and body, combine to create a person. The â€Å"official theory† of the mind views the mind as private to the individual, meaningRead MoreEssay on Cartesian Dualism and Gilbert Ryle1899 Words   |  8 Pages Gilbert Ryle is well known in the philosophical world specifically as a behaviorist. According to Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy behaviorist are â€Å"followers in the ‘ordinary language’ tradition of analytic philosophy, while, for the most part, regarding behavioral scientific hopes as vain, hold views that are, in other respects, strongly behaviorists†(Hause r 1). In the middle of the twentieth century the ordinary language behaviorist movement was strongly covered by Ryle and Wittgenstein. TheseRead MoreThe Mind Body Problem, By Rene Descartes Essay1331 Words   |  6 Pages Mind-Body Problem Oluwadamilola Kamson Philosophy 101: Introduction to Philosophy November 2016 INTRODUCTION The Mind-body problem dates back to Plato and was well received by the scholastic philosophers. However, it was Rene Descartes the famous French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. The mind-body problem is not, of course, a single problem at all, but a large collection of problems which focuses upon the fundamental issue of reality and knowledge in so far as such analysisRead MoreThe Theory Of The Mind Body Dualism1232 Words   |  5 PagesRenà © Descartes was a French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher of the 16th Century, who, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, â€Å"was one of the first to abandon scholastic Aristotelianism and created the first version of the modern mind-body dualism or emotion† (Encyclopedia Britannica). Born on March 31, 1596, he was dubbed as the Father of Modern Philosophy. His theory on the mind-body dualism, also known as Cartesian Dualism, created a stem of the modern problem of the relationship betweenRead More Gilbert Ryles The Concept of Mind Essay2412 Words   |  10 PagesGilbert 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 hypotheticalRead MoreThe Mind And Body Problem1443 Words   |  6 Pagesevidentially obvious than knowing the brain state of a patient or if they have a Cartesian soul or not. Doctor 4 provides the argument that since the patient is behaviourally indistinguishable from a normal human, she has the usual range of mental states. Gilbert Ryle’s view on the mind and body problem stems from â€Å"Philosophical or logical behaviourism† (Wk. 8-1, Slide 18). This view means that the idea that ascriptions of mental states correlates to â€Å"dispositions of behaviour† (Wk. 8-1, Slide 18). BehaviouristsRead MoreEssay on The Philosophy of Cognitive Science2158 Words   |  9 Pagesbeen insistently discussed in the philosophical tradition and several solutions have been proposed. Such solutions are properly philosophical or require a scientific approach. First, I will expound the philosophical solution to the MBP proposed by Descartes, to be followed by an exposition of Ryles criticisms to the solution. Second, from Ryles criticism, I will deduce a scientific solution to the MBP related to the neural framework model of mind in cognitive science b y means of what I call the principleRead MoreEssay on Life After Death Analysis2110 Words   |  9 Pagesa Mr Gilbert Ryle. In 1949 when psychology was a young and nubile science, seen (as all new sciences are seen) to hold the Holy Grail to understanding the human mind, Ryle published â€Å"The Concept Of The Mind†. In this he dismissed the soul as a category mistake, or a misuse of language. He even went so far as to coin a scornful phrase for his nemesis â€Å"the ghost in the machine† – a beautifully elegant term as it embodies both his belief of the body/mind (as for Ryle, the