Gilbert Ryle

Gilbert Ryle 1900-1976, British philosopher. A graduate of Oxford, he became a tutor at Christ Church, Oxford, and later was Waynflete professor of metaphysical philosophy (1945-68) there. From 1947 to 1971 he was editor of the philosophical journal Mind. Like Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ryle was concerned with problems caused by the confusion of grammatical with logical distinctions. He pointed out the so-called category mistake, in which, usually because of a grammatical equivalence, two things are mistakenly treated as belonging to equivalent logical categories. In his Concept of Mind (1949), Ryle argued that the mind is not a non-physical substance residing in the body, "a ghost in a machine," but a set of capacities and abilities belonging to the body. All references to the mental must be understood, at least theoretically, in terms of witnessable activities. His other works include Dilemmas (1954), Plato's Progress (1966), and Collected Papers (2 vol., 1971).

Bibliography: See G. Pitcher and O. Wood, ed., Ryle (1971).

Ryle, Gilbert (1900–76), Waynflete professor of metaphysical philosophy in the University of Oxford (1945–68). He is best known for his attack on the traditional metaphysical dualism of mind and body, which he calls the ‘dogma of the ghost in the machine’. His works include The Concept of Mind (1949) and Dilemmas (1954).