Gilbert Ryle

Question 1

Gilbert Ryle

Answer 1

Ryle was a philosophical behaviourist who saw ‘mental’ events as just referring to a specific pattern of behaviour. ‘Mind’ is no longer internal; it is what we do with our bodies.
Eg. when someone is depressed or angry or joyful, we look at the pattern of behaviour they exhibit in each different case. We cannot see beyond this behaviour.

Question 2

Ghost in the Machine

Answer 2

Gilbert Ryle calls Descartes’ theory ‘the ghost in the machine’ (ghost = mind, machine = body).
According to Ryle, there is no mind which exists as a separate entity to the body and to search for one is to make a category mistake.

Question 3

Category Mistake

Answer 3

Ryle’s analogy suggests that the mind is not a separate entity from the body but rather a result of the activities and processes of the brain, similar to how the concept of a university is derived from the activities and structures within it.

One analogy for this is the foreigner who, visiting Cambridge or Oxford University for the first time, is shown all the different colleges and buildings but then asks ‘where is the University?’ The student mistakenly thinking it is another physical thing rather than a collection of activities and structures.