Back Cover Blurb
- Professor Ryle sets out to expose the myth of Descartes' doctrine of the separateness of mental and physical existences, an attitude still fundamental to much philosophical and psychological thinking today and based on an aversion to the mechanistic assumption that ‘human nature differs only in degree of complexity from clockwork'.
- The influence of the idea of a 'ghost in the machine' is traced, explained, and combated in traditional theories of will, feeling, imagination, perception, and thought.
- The nature of knowledge is carefully analysed and a theory of mind emerges from which the Cartesian myth is dispelled and which does justice to our ordinary common-sense views about the workings of our own, and other people's, minds.
- ‘This is probably one of the two or three most important and original works of general philosophy which have been published in England in the last twenty years... . Professor Ryle writes with Aristotelian pregnancy, and almost every paragraph contains observations which require, and will certainly be given, thousands of words of discussion'
→ Stuart Hampshire in Mind
Amazon Customer Review1
- The Concept of Mind is one of the essential works of philosophy and one of the great books of the twentieth century. Western thought took a horrendous wrong turn with Cartesian dualism and it was not until Ryle's book in 1949 that we got back on track. Or at least should have done, for the idea that we are two separate entities - mind and body - still pervades, and muddies, our thinking, whether philosophical, theological or everyday.
- Some of Ryle's followers have extended his ideas to the point of distortion, and would have us believe that mind and consciousness actually do not exist. Don't let such behaviourist extremism put you off. Ryle's feet were always more firmly on the ground. He defines the concept of mind, not invalidates it.
- He has a lively, readable style (of how many philosophers can you say that?) and although a lot of his ideas do not have the novelty that they would have had half a century ago, this is still the best book with which to begin an investigation of the nature of mind and consciousness.
In-Page Footnotes ("Ryle (Gilbert) - The Concept of Mind")
Footnote 1: I read this book several decades ago, and ought to review it myself, but time does not allow.
Book Comment
- Peregrine, Penguin Books, 1968 Reprint. Originally 1949.
- See also "Ryle (Gilbert) - The Concept of Mind": TOC & Introduction reproduced therein.
- I read this book back in the previous century sometime. Any time for subsequent attention will be booked against the above book.
"Ryle (Gilbert) - Descartes' Myth"
Source: Rosenthal - The Nature of Mind
Paper Comment
From Chap. 1 of "Ryle (Gilbert) - The Concept of Mind"
"Ryle (Gilbert) - Self-Knowledge (excerpts)"
Source: Rosenthal - The Nature of Mind
Paper Comment
From Chap. 6 of "Ryle (Gilbert) - The Concept of Mind"
"Ryle (Gilbert) - The Concept of Mind"
Source: Ryle - The Concept of Mind
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)