Gilbert Ryle and the Map of the Mind

Gilbert Ryle and the Map of the Mind

From Philosophy Talk: Select Episodes by Philosophy Talk

January 1, 2026 · 1 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Gilbert Ryle's critique of Cartesian dualism and explores the implications of category mistakes in understanding the mind-body relationship.

More at https://philosophytalk.org/shows/gilbert-ryle. Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) was a British philosopher of mind and language best known for his book The Concept of Mind. He developed a novel argument against Cartesian dualism, which he called “the doctrine of the ghost in the machine”—the idea that our minds and bodies are separate substances. Ryle introduced a new term for the problem with this argument: Descartes was making a “category mistake.” But what exactly is a category mistake, and how bad is it to make one? If Cartesian dualism is false, what is the relationship between our minds and our bodies? And what does it have to do with the distinction between “knowing-how” and “knowing-that”? Josh and Ray turn their minds to Michael Kremer from the University of Chicago, author of “The Development of Gilbert Ryle’s Concept of Knowledge.”

People in this episode

Hosts: Josh, Ray

Guest: Michael Kremer

Topics covered

  • philosophy of mind
  • Cartesian dualism
  • category mistake
  • relationship between mind and body
  • knowing-how vs knowing-that

Keywords

  • Gilbert Ryle
  • Cartesian dualism
  • category mistake
  • philosophy of mind
  • knowing-how
  • knowing-that

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Chicago

Books & works: The Concept of Mind, The Development of Gilbert Ryle’s Concept of Knowledge

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