Blackwell Reference Online

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P hilosophical method, logic Ryle 's term for a kind of error typically involved in the generation of philosophical problems and in attempts to solve them. The logical type or category to which a concept belongs is constituted by the set of ways in which it is logically legitimate to operate with that concept. When one ascribes a concept to one logical type or category when it is in fact of another, a category mistake is committed. For instance, to say “time is red” is to commit such a mistake, for time is not the sort of thing that could have a color. In another example, it is a mistake to assign the Average Man to the same category as actual individual men like Smith and Jones. According to Ryle, the Cartesian dogma of the ghost in the machine commits a category mistake by describing the mind as belonging to the category of substance , when it actually belongs to the category of disposition . The way to expose a category mistake is through a reductio ad absurdum argument, showing the conceptually unacceptable consequences of treating an item as belonging to an inappropriate category. “It is, namely, a category mistake. It represents the facts of mental life as if they belonged to one logical type or category (or range of types or categories), when they actually belong to another.” Ryle, The Concept of Mind ... log in or subscribe to read full text