UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF

PRESENTATION OF GROUP 2
GILBERT RYLE
(AUGUST 1900-OCTOBER 1976)

Son of doctor but generalist who had interest in philosophy &

astronomy, who passed Ryle a impressive library
• Grew up in environment of learning
• Gilbert Ryle was best known for his criticism of what he called the
"Official Doctrine" of "Cartesian Dualism" as a theory of mind.
 GILBERT RYLE
 The mind-body problem asks how a non-material mental
substance can causally influence the material body. Ryle's 1949
book The Concept of Mind is regarded by many thinkers as
having eliminated the immaterial mind and "dis-solved" the mind-
body problem, which Ryle saw as the result of what he called a
"category mistake.“
 In some ways influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, who thought
many philosophical problems were caused by misuse of
language, Ryle said the category mistake was applying
properties to a non-material thing that are logically and
grammatically appropriate only for a category including material
things.
DILEMMAS
BY: GILBERT RYLE

“Dilemmas” Gilbert means neither historical nor

existential pre documents, but tangles brought
about in our lines thought when we treat one
subject with conceptual apparatus appropriate
to another ,or when we express one interest in
idioms appropriate to another. Such as matter a
fatalism , motion ,pleasure, and perception
confront us with dilemmas when they generate
question which cannot be answering by
providing more evidence and further arguments
“ “A PERSON WHO HAS A GOOD NOSE FOR
ARGUMENTS OR JOKES MAY HAVE A BAD
HEAD FOR FACTS.”

- GILBERT RYLE
”
“Man need not be degraded to a machine
by being denied to be a ghost in a machine.

- GILBERT RYLE
 CARTESIAN DUALISM
THE CONCEPT OF MIND
BY GILBERT RYLE( 1949)

“Cartesian dualism” the relationship between

mind and body and particularly against the “ghost in the
machine”, the myth of the inner mental life
 argues that dualism involves category mistakes and
philosophical nonsense.
 Ryle goes on to analyze how this apparent conflict
between the theory of Cartesian dualism (“the ghost
in the machine”) and our everyday experience of
others is actually the result of confused conceptual
thinking, a logical error that he terms a “category
mistake.”
MEN BELIEVE THEMSELVES TO BE FREE, SIMPLY
BECAUSE THEY ARE CONSCIOUS OF THEIR
ACTIONS, AND UNCONSCIOUS OF THE CAUSES
WHEREBY THOSE ACTIONS ARE DETERMINED.
Knowing-how and knowing-
that
RYLE TOOK A NARROW VIEW OF THE
SCOPE OF HIS FIELD. FOR HIM,
PHILOSOPHY DID NOT EXTEND BEYOND THE
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND, PHILOSOPHICAL
LOGIC, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF
LANGUAGE. ETHICS, POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY, AND AESTHETICS WERE
'PHILOSOPHY' ONLY BY A STRAINED
COURTESY AND A BURDENSOME
HISTORICAL TRADITION
Thank you