Philosopher, born in Brighton, East Sussex, SE England, UK. He studied at Brighton and Oxford, where he was a tutor, served in World War 2, then became professor of metaphysical philosophy at Oxford (194568) and editor of Mind (194771). He was an influential defender of linguistic or ordinary language philosophy, and is best known for his book The Concept of Mind (1949), which argued against the mind/body dualism (the ghost in the machine) proposed by Descartes.
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Western Philosophers 20th-century philosophy |
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| Name: | Gilbert Ryle |
| Birth: | August 19, 1900 |
| Death: | October 6, 1976 |
| School/tradition: | Analytic |
| Main interests: | Language, Ordinary language philosophy, Philosophy of mind, Behaviourism, Meaning, Cognition |
| Notable ideas: | Ryle's Regress, Ordinary language philosophy, The Ghost in the machine |
| Influences: | Descartes, Wittgenstein |
| Influenced: | J. Hare, Wilfrid Sellars, Daniel Dennett |
Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976), was a philosopher, and a representative of the generation of British ordinary language philosophers influenced by Wittgenstein's insights into language, and is principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "the ghost in the machine".
The Concept of Mind
In The Concept of Mind (1949), Ryle admits to having been taken in by the body-mind dualism which permeates Western philosophy, and claims that the idea of Mind as an independent entity, inhabiting and governing the body, should be rejected as a redundant piece of literalism carried over from the era before the biological sciences became established.
He attacks the idea of 17th and 18th century thinkers (such as Descartes and La Mettrie) that nature is a complex machine, and that human nature is a smaller machine with a "ghost" in it to account for intelligence, spontaneity and other such human qualities. Ryle also created the classic argument against cognitivist theories of explanation, Ryle's Regress.
Legacy and influence
The Concept of Mind was recognized on its appearance as an important contribution to philosophical psychology, and an important work in the ordinary language philosophy movement. In philosophy the two major post-war schools in the philosophy of mind, the representationalism of Jerry Fodor and the functionalism of Wilfrid Sellars posited precisely the 'internal' cognitive states that Ryle had argued against.
Aspects of Ryle's work have been an important influence on cultural anthropologists like Clifford Geertz who approvingly quote his notion of 'Thick description'.
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