The Concept of Mind

Professor Ryle sets out to expose the myth of Descartes’ doctrine of the separateness of mental and physical existences, an attitude still fundamental to much philosophical and psychological thinking today and based on an aversion to the mechanistic assumption that ‘human nature differs only in degree of complexity from clockwork.’ The influence of the idea of a 'ghost in the machine' is traced, explained, and combated in traditional theories of will, feeling, imagination, perception, and thought. The nature of knowledge is carefully analysed and a theory of mind emerges from which the Cartesian myth is dispelled and which does justice to our ordinary common-sense views about the workings of our own, and other people's, minds.

Published 1983, Peregrine Book.

Binding of the book is slightly loose. Moderate shelfwear, some foxing and slight creasing on covers of book. Heavy tanning and foxing on edges of book. Annotations in pen on inside of front cover. Moderate foxing on insides of covers. Annotations in pen, moderate foxing and few stains on certain pages.