Descartes’ Myth

In 1949 Gilbert Ryle published a challenge to what he considered to be the official theory of mind-body separation. He describes the mind-body distinction as the mind existing apart from the physical world and the body existing in the world, and a person consists of both of these attributes. A mind is sometimes described as being in the head of a person, but this is only used metaphorically; it is not a spatial object. A mind is also private to the individual. So unless Daniela’s mind is expressed, only Daniela can know her thoughts, feelings, etc.
The mind can cause a change in the physical world and the world can cause a change in the mind. So a person’s mind can cause the body to reach out and grab a pen. And what a person touches, smells, sees, etc, with the body causes an effect on the mind.
Ryle thinks this view of separation of body and mind is ridiculous and refers to it as, “the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine.” He begins the argument against this view in his attempt to show that it is a categorical mistake. A categorical mistake can arise when a person does not recognize an entity, and only recognizes the parts. Ryle gives the example of person being given a tour of a university; and after the person saw the university for the first time he asks the question, I have seen the students, buildings, and different colleges, but where is the university? The person thought the parts of the university were separate from the university. A less likely, but same mistake could occur if someone asked a friend to see pictures of their family, and when done showing the pictures of their, cousin, uncle, brother, mother, and father; the person replies, “so which one of these people is your family?” The mistake arise by not understand a concept of the language. There are also theoretical categorical mistakes. As Ryle says, a person may become confused when they here about John Dow, and wonders, “where is this John Dow, why have I never seen him”? The person makes the mistake of thinking that there is really a particular person being referred as John Dow, instead of recognizing that John Dow is the average people who pay taxes. The person would consider John Dow as a ghost that is everywhere, but nowhere to be found. This understanding of categorical mistake begins the argument against distinction of the mind and body for Ryle .
Ryle believes the categorical mistake of the mind and body arose during maturity of science. From science, people began to understand the world as more mechanical and predictable as they understood there were laws that governed its nature. As a scientist, Renee Descartes saw this and sought to distinguish physics from mind on religious motivations. Ryle describes the idea having been formed in negatives; The mind is not, matter, mechanical, in space, or is accessible to public observation. And because it was also assumed the physical world is determined, it was assumed that moral values could no longer be applicable. If there are physical laws that determine everything, the question arose; how can any person be morally responsible for their choices if they are fully mechanical beings? That is, one could no more blame a tree for falling on someone then being slapped by someone in the face.
Ryle thinks it was too quickly assumed that the mind and body were separate. By doing so, it does not allow for the opportunity to consider other ideas of how body and mind are correlated. It does not allow for alternative view of how physical states affect mental states. He says we were able to distinguish “good from bad arithmetic, politic from impolitic conduct” long before Descartes and continue to do so.
When considering two conflicting propositions, Ryle thinks that before an entire new category is assumed to mitigate a problem, it should first be attempted to resolve it as is. If someone wanted to understand the difference between men and women it would be odd to create a new category of existence for men, such as non-humanoid. Rather one should consider how they are related, and would come to the conclusion they both fall in the category of human. Ryle gives the example from a person buying a pair of gloves, and says it would be an error to say that the person bought a right handed glove or a left handed glove, but not both. Example of things that should be considered in different categories are color, sunset, dogs, and smiles.
Although Ryle gives several examples of categorical mistakes, I am left wondering what exactly is the criterion of a categorical mistake. If there are two independent objects such as; “red balls,” and “blue balls,” it is possible to place the red and blue objects in separate color categories. But we could also place the different colored objects in the same category, such “toys”. If the criterion for a categorical mistake is not clear, it is difficult to see if the argument is conclusive.