A man is the one of the most intelligent creatures on the Earth and this is why he is usually interested in a number of questions, a lot of them are philosophical, such as the questions concerning the sense of life, our place in the universe and history, our life and death, our existence after the end of life. However, one of the most important questions that have always been in human mind is the nature of mind and its relation with human body. Philosophers have been trying to solve the riddle of mind and body since ancient times and history of philosophy presents controversial and even diametrically opposite views of the problem, such as the philosophic idea of Rene Descartes and Gilbert Ryle. It is always useful to resort to past experience that shows its reliability due to the test of time. The philosophy of Gilbert Ryle offered and interesting and promising view of mind and nature as inseparable things in contrast with Descartes’ dualism that suggested independence of mind and its governing of body.
Gilbert Ryle’s philosophic basis is grounded on the assertion that the mistake of other philosophers lies in their perception of mind and body as “terms of the same logical type” (Ryle 200). The philosopher’s basic argument is that phrase ‘there occurred mental processes’ does not mean the same sort of thing as ‘the occur physical processes,’ and, therefore, that it makes no sense to conjoin of disjoin the two (Ryle 200).
Gilbert Ryle sees mental processes as merely intelligent acts (Ryle 200). These intelligent acts are the only existing and they, in fact, coincide with the operations of the mind. Thus, the philosopher suggests that the operations of minds are not only embodied with the help of intelligent act, the notions are synonymic, and they coincide. Consequently, in order to define mental processes, a person should resort to such acts that are operated by mind and need intellectual activity, such as learning or willing as these acts coincide with intellectual operations. The manner of presentation of ideas by the philosopher is rather complex but it creates a good opposition to Descartes’ “the ghost in the machine”.
Ryle’s explanation of the notion and essence of the motives that lead a person’s activity is rather interesting. He asserts that it is possible to get at the motives of a person depending on the variety of situations in which a person appears. He pays great attention to the behavior of a person in particular situation as to the decisive factor that can explain motives without consideration of mental processes that occur in the situation. This point of view resembles the ideas of behaviorists to a great extent. However, the explanation of the nature of motives seems one-sided.
On the whole, the philosophy of Gilbert Ryle seems to be more convincing than that of Rene Descartes’. It may be useful for the explanation of the connection of mind and body as it is more integrated than the concept of dualism. “The Concept of Mind” tackles such notions as motives and dispositions that play important role in the activity of a human being. The strong point of the concept of Gilbert Ryle is in his study of such actions as thinking, remembering, willing in their relation to behavior. However, “The Concept of Mind” along with behaviorist theory has inspired criticism that should also be analyzed in order to decide if the concept of Ryle is sufficient to answer the question about connection of mind and body or not.
Works Cited
Ryle, Gilbert. “How is My Mind Connecter to My Body?” Twenty Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy. Bowie, G. Lee, Michaels, Meredith W., and Robert C. Solomon. USA: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.