Becoming Gilbert Ryle: a genealogy of The Concept of Mind  Seminar

Gilbert Ryle is best known for his first book, The Concept of Mind (1949). But he was 49 when the book was published, and the ideas in it and the methods he employed the product of a prolonged gestation. In this paper, I trace his intellectual development from his time as a classics undergraduate in Oxford just after the first world war, through his years as a junior lecturer trying to get beyond the old debates between realists and idealists, while assimilating a wide range of intellectual influences (Russell, Moore, Wisdom, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Heidegger, Husserl). I shall also look at his pivotal role in creating the institutions and conventions of post-war academic philosophy through his role in the founding of Analysis, his editorship of Mind, and his reforms to graduate education in philosophy. (This paper is derived from my book manuscript, a narrative history of Oxford philosophy 1900–60 aimed at non-academic readers.)

This seminar will be chaired by Professor Denis McManus.

The room for this talk has limited capacity, and seats will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.