Descartes S Myth
Cynthia Salas 09/28/2014
PHI: 107 Descartes’s Myth
In “Descartes’s Myth,” Gilbert Ryle main conclusion is that the body and mind are two separate beings. First, Ryle talks about the, The Official Doctrine by Descartes. Descartes says, “Every human body has both a body and a mind. Some would prefer to say that every human being is both a body and a mind. His body and mind are ordinarily harnessed together, but after death the mind may continue to exist and function.” Ryle’s argues that statement by saying “Human bodies are in space and are subject to the mechanical laws which govern all other bodies in space. But mind are not in space, nor are their operations subject to mechanical laws.” Ryle believes that a person lives through two collateral histories, which are one consisting of what happens in and to his body and what happens in and to his mind. Second, Ryle talks about the, The Absurdity of the Official Doctrine and starts off by saying that the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine is false and calls it a category mistake. He continues to give example of category-mistakes. At the end of that section he says, “As the human body is a complex organized unit, so the human mind must be another complex organized unit. Therefore, Ryle does not believe that we are ghost in a machine by rather our brain and body is way to complex to just be one thing. Ryle believes that the mind and body are two different fields of causes and effects. These two arguments come together to show that Ryle does not agree with the conclusions Descartes has come up with and calls them “Descartes’s Myth.”
PHI: 107 Descartes’s Myth
In “Descartes’s Myth,” Gilbert Ryle main conclusion is that the body and mind are two separate beings. First, Ryle talks about the, The Official Doctrine by Descartes. Descartes says, “Every human body has both a body and a mind. Some would prefer to say that every human being is both a body and a mind. His body and mind are ordinarily harnessed together, but after death the mind may continue to exist and function.” Ryle’s argues that statement by saying “Human bodies are in space and are subject to the mechanical laws which govern all other bodies in space. But mind are not in space, nor are their operations subject to mechanical laws.” Ryle believes that a person lives through two collateral histories, which are one consisting of what happens in and to his body and what happens in and to his mind. Second, Ryle talks about the, The Absurdity of the Official Doctrine and starts off by saying that the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine is false and calls it a category mistake. He continues to give example of category-mistakes. At the end of that section he says, “As the human body is a complex organized unit, so the human mind must be another complex organized unit. Therefore, Ryle does not believe that we are ghost in a machine by rather our brain and body is way to complex to just be one thing. Ryle believes that the mind and body are two different fields of causes and effects. These two arguments come together to show that Ryle does not agree with the conclusions Descartes has come up with and calls them “Descartes’s Myth.”