A myth is, of course, not a fairy story. It is the presentation of facts belonging to one category in the idioms appropriate to another. To explode a myth is accordingly not to deny the facts but to re-allocate them.
Gilbert RyleRead
Man need not be degraded to a machine by being denied to be a ghost in a machine. He might, after all, be a sort of animal, namely, a higher mammal. There has yet to be ventured the hazardous leap to the hypothesis that perhaps he is a man.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that humans are not just mechanical entities but complex beings with unique qualities.
Gilbert Ryle's quote critiques the view that humans can be reduced to mere machines governed by laws of nature. He argues for recognizing human beings as higher mammals that possess unique qualities, emphasizing the need to consider the more complex aspects of human existence beyond mechanistic explanations.
Themes
HumanPhilosophyExistenceMachineMammal
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about the nature of consciousness.
More from Gilbert Ryle
All quotes →Man need not be degraded to a machine by being denied to be a ghost in a machine.
Gilbert RyleRead
The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine ... maintains that there exist both bodies and minds; that there occur physical processes and mental processes; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements and mental causes of corporeal movements.
Gilbert RyleRead
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