Descartes and Gilbert Ryle are the two philosophers that discuss the subject matter of dualism, for that they will be the objective of this paper. In this paper, I will be discussing the metaphysical claims and ideals that Descartes presents to us in his meditations, to be more specific, I will be covering his second and sixth meditation. I will also be discussing about Ryle, who tackles the idea of dualism in his paper Descartes’ Myth, in which he goes in thorough depth of Descartes metaphysics. Ryle believes that Descartes, dualism is flawed in the fact that it has made a categorical mistake.
Before discussing the problems that Ryle addresses about his opponent Descartes, I will be presenting Descartes philosophical claims, so that there …show more content…
According to Ryle, dualism has made a huge mistake and for that he believes that it can be disproven. In his paper, Ryle discusses dualism and properly explains the foundation of Descartes metaphysics, which he refers to as the “Official Doctrine”. After Ryle goes through the basics of dualism, he begins to talk about the issues that arise from dualism. Ryle states that dualism has made a mistake and that mistake he refers to as “the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine”. The argument that Ryle is trying to make with the idea of the ghost in the machine is that it represent a categorical mistake. He clarifies his definition of a categorical mistake by providing an example for the account, it goes as follows “A foreigner visiting Oxford or cambridge for the first time is shown a number of colleges, libraries, playing fields, museums, scientific departments and administrative offices. He then ask ‘but where is the University?” (pg 34). The point of this example is the show that foreigner made the mistake of categorizing the University as its parts that form a “University”. Ryle believes that Descartes made the same mistake in his theory because it categorizes the mind and body as separate things, when it should be categorize as one thing. The reasoning behind this is because Ryle believes that the mind is not separate or completely private. For that reason, Ryle believes that we are able to understand …show more content…
Which is, where does the mind go after we have died? Because how can the mind continue to be existent when the body is no longer present? This does in fact bring issues to dualism. We shouldn’t believed that there is a ghost in the machine, but that the ghost is the machine itself. In other words, when the machine is no longer running, the “ghost” stops as well. If we were to take on the idea that the mind continues to exist, we would have to try to figure out, where does our mind go? Does it become recyclable and transfers on to new bodies? These are problems that a dualist cannot properly answer and because of that we should deny
Before discussing the problems that Ryle addresses about his opponent Descartes, I will be presenting Descartes philosophical claims, so that there …show more content…
According to Ryle, dualism has made a huge mistake and for that he believes that it can be disproven. In his paper, Ryle discusses dualism and properly explains the foundation of Descartes metaphysics, which he refers to as the “Official Doctrine”. After Ryle goes through the basics of dualism, he begins to talk about the issues that arise from dualism. Ryle states that dualism has made a mistake and that mistake he refers to as “the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine”. The argument that Ryle is trying to make with the idea of the ghost in the machine is that it represent a categorical mistake. He clarifies his definition of a categorical mistake by providing an example for the account, it goes as follows “A foreigner visiting Oxford or cambridge for the first time is shown a number of colleges, libraries, playing fields, museums, scientific departments and administrative offices. He then ask ‘but where is the University?” (pg 34). The point of this example is the show that foreigner made the mistake of categorizing the University as its parts that form a “University”. Ryle believes that Descartes made the same mistake in his theory because it categorizes the mind and body as separate things, when it should be categorize as one thing. The reasoning behind this is because Ryle believes that the mind is not separate or completely private. For that reason, Ryle believes that we are able to understand …show more content…
Which is, where does the mind go after we have died? Because how can the mind continue to be existent when the body is no longer present? This does in fact bring issues to dualism. We shouldn’t believed that there is a ghost in the machine, but that the ghost is the machine itself. In other words, when the machine is no longer running, the “ghost” stops as well. If we were to take on the idea that the mind continues to exist, we would have to try to figure out, where does our mind go? Does it become recyclable and transfers on to new bodies? These are problems that a dualist cannot properly answer and because of that we should deny