Gilbert Ryle Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Gilbert Ryle

Gilbert Ryle was one of the most influential British philosophers of the twentieth century. Along with Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, he called attention to the centrality of language in the formation of concepts. For that reason he is celebrated as one of the founders of what has been labeled "language analysis" or "ordinary language philosophy." Such labels, however, fail to take into account the broad historical background against which Ryle conducted his investigations. That background included classical Greek philosophy, as manifested in his original interpretation of Plato, and the work of German phenomenologists, whose views sometimes provided a foil for his approach. Philosophers all over the world have been affected by his eloquently and vigorously stated views, which provided extensive additions to available philosophical tools. A prediction by a reviewer of his seminal work, The Concept of Mind (1949), has certainly come true: "Professor Ryle writes with Aristotelian pregnancy, and almost every paragraph contains observations which require, and will certainly be given, thousands of words of discussion."

Besides influencing the philosophical scene through his original writings, Ryle contributed to the spread of ideas generated in England to other parts of the world through his editorship of Mind from 1948 to 1971.

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