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Full Idea
The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine maintains that there exist both minds and bodies; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements, and mental causes of corporeal movements.
Clarification
The 'Ghost in the Machine' idea is Cartesian dualism about mind and body
Gist of Idea
Can one movement have a mental and physical cause?
Source
Gilbert Ryle (The Concept of Mind [1949], I (3))
Book Ref
Ryle,Gilbert: 'The Concept of Mind' [Penguin 1949], p.23
A Reaction
This nicely identifies the problem of double causation, which can be found in Spinoza (Idea 4862). The dualists have certainly got a problem here, but they can deny a conflict. The initiation of a hand movement is not mechanical at all.
Related Idea
Idea 4862 Can the pineal gland be moved more slowly or quickly by the mind than by animal spirits? [Spinoza on Descartes]
| 2388 | Behaviour depends on desires as well as beliefs [Chalmers on Ryle] |
| 3354 | You can't explain mind as dispositions, if they aren't real [Benardete,JA on Ryle] |
| 2387 | How can behaviour be the cause of behaviour? [Chalmers on Ryle] |
| 18005 | Philosophy aims to become more disciplined about categories [Ryle] |
| 1354 | We cannot introspect states of anger or panic [Ryle] |
| 1353 | Reporting on myself has the same problems as reporting on you [Ryle] |
| 2620 | Dualism is a category mistake [Ryle] |
| 2622 | Can one movement have a mental and physical cause? [Ryle] |
| 14297 | A dispositional property is not a state, but a liability to be in some state, given a condition [Ryle] |
| 14300 | No physical scientist now believes in an occult force-exerting agency [Ryle] |
| 2624 | I cannot prepare myself for the next thought I am going to think [Ryle] |