Gilbert Ryle

Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900 – 6 October 1976) was a British philosopher.^[7] Today, he is mostly known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, which he called "ghost in the machine." He was a f British ordinary language philosophers who shared Ludwig Wittgenstein's approach to philosophical problems.^[8]

Gilbert Ryle
Portrait by Rex Whistler
Born	19 August 1900 Brighton, England
Died	6 October 1976 (aged 76) Whitby, England
Alma mater	The Queen's College, Oxford
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy logical behaviourism[1][2]
Doctoral students	Daniel Dennett Colin Radford
Other notable students	A. J. Ayer G. A. Cohen Antony Flew Þorsteinn Gylfason Bernard Williams
Main interests	Philosophy of language ordinary language philosophy philosophy of mind behaviourism meaning cognition
Notable ideas	Category mistake Ryle's regress ordinary language philosophy ghost in the machine thick description vs thin description knowing-how vs. knowing-that topic neutrality[3]
Influences René Descartes Ludwig Wittgenstein Herbert James Paton[4] Edmund Husserl[5]
Influenced J. L. Austin A. J. Ayer John Searle R. M. Hare Wilfrid Sellars Daniel Dennett Richard Webster Ullin Place Clifford Geertz G. A. Cohen P. F. Strawson Michael Dummett[6] Þorsteinn Gylfason J. J. C. Smart Alan R. White

Some of Ryle's ideas in philosophy of mind have been called behaviourist. In his best-known book, The Concept of Mind (1949), he writes that the "general trend of this book will undoubtedly, and harmlessly, be stigmatised as 'behaviourist'."^[9] Having studied the philosophers Bernard Bolzano, Franz Brentano, Alexius Meinong, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, Ryle suggested that the book instead "could be described as a sustained essay in phenomenology, if you are at home with that label."^[10]