more from Gilbert Ryle

Single Idea 3354

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / B. Behaviourism / 2. Potential Behaviour]

Full Idea

Ryle is tough-minded to the point of incoherence when he combines a dispositional account of the mind with an anti-realist account of dispositions.

Clarification

A 'disposition' is potential behaviour, or a tendency to behave in a certain way.

Gist of Idea

You can't explain mind as dispositions, if they aren't real

Source

comment on Gilbert Ryle (The Concept of Mind [1949]) by José A. Benardete - Metaphysics: the logical approach Ch.22

Book Reference

Benardete,José A.: 'Metaphysics: The Logical Approach' [OUP 1989], p.176


A Reaction

A nice point, but it strikes me that Ryle was, by temperament at least, an eliminativist about the mind, so the objection would not bother him. Maybe a disposition and a property are the same thing?