of bibliographical references, considers the absence of footnotes in The Concept of Mind as a sign of its quality. Iris Murdoch has compared The Concept of Mind to Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness (1943), with the view that English analytic philosophy shares the same general orientation as continental philosophy. Ryle has been interpreted by David Stannard as maintaining that the psychoanalytic idea of the unconscious is rooted in the Cartesian conception of a body-mind dichotomy and as such is one version of the "Ghost in the Machine" fallacy. According to Stannard, Ryle views the dogma as a logical error based on a category mistake. Richard Webster praises Ryle's clarity and strength of argument, but suggests that while his arguments effectively dissolve the mind-body problem, they have failed to bring about a revolution in human knowledge. Webster attributes this to the fact that Ryle's case that subjective aspects of experience such as sensation, memory, consciousness and sense of self are not the essence of "mind" has not been universally accepted by contemporary philosophers, neuroscientists, and psychologists. Webster believes that Ryle's willingness to accept the characterization of The Concept of Mind as behaviorist misrepresents its more nuanced position, writing that Ryle's acceptance of that description is not harmless, as Ryle himself suggested. Webster stresses that Ryle does not deny the reality of what are often called internal sensations and thoughts, but simply rejects the idea that they belong to a realm logically distinct from and independent of the external realm of ordinary human behaviour. The book's style of writing was commented on more negatively by Herbert Marcuse, who observes that the way in which Ryle follows his presentation of "Descartes' Myth" as the "official doctrine" about the relation between body and mind with a preliminary demonstration of its "absurdity" which evokes "John Doe, Richard Roe, and what they think about the 'Average Taxpayer'" shows a style that moves "between the two poles of pontificating authority and easy-going chumminess," something Marcuse finds to be characteristic of philosophical behaviorism. See also Hard problem of consciousness Logical behaviorism Mens sana in corpore sano Qualia References External links Read or download "The Concept of Mind" by Gilbert Ryle on archive.org 1949 non-fiction books Books about consciousness Books by Gilbert Ryle Cognitive science literature Contemporary philosophical literature English-language books English non-fiction books Philosophy books Philosophy of mind literature University of Chicago Press books