An Honest Ghost?

Abstract

Gilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind purports to exorcise “the ghost in the machine” by translating all talk about the mind into talk about behavior, and sometimes Ryle asserts that he has succeeded in this endeavor. However, on closer inspection, there is still a residue of our private, mental lives left in Ryle’s account. So the ghost remains. But perhaps it is a more honest ghost, and that is still quite an achievement.