Ryle, Gilbert

"The person is an embodied agent, not a disembodied mind."

"Understanding is a practical accomplishment."

"Concepts carve nature at its joints."

"Excellence is the habit of doing things well."

"The mind shows itself in conduct."

"Learning involves the transformation of the self."

"The concept of mind has been bedeviled by the assumption that knowing is the name of a single, unambiguous process."

"We use mental-conduct words where we use dispositional words in other connections."

"Thinking is not a ghostly process that goes on in a mysterious medium called the mind."

"Behaviorism is not the thesis that mental concepts are meaningless, but rather that they should be understood differently."

"The traditional view treats the mind as a separate entity operating parallel to the body, but this creates philosophical puzzles rather than solving them."

"Learning a skill requires practice and habituation, not merely the acquisition of theoretical knowledge."

"What we call intelligence is not a single faculty but a collection of dispositions to behave in certain ways."

"The category mistake occurs when we treat something as belonging to one logical type when it belongs to another."

"Understanding is not a matter of having mental images but of possessing practical competence."

"We must be wary of the assumption that every word corresponds to a distinct entity or process."

"The concept of the will is confused when we treat it as a separate force commanding behavior."

"Imagination is the ability to think of things as they are not, which is essential to creativity."

"Motivation is not an inner push but a disposition to act in certain circumstances."

"The study of language is crucial to understanding the concepts we employ in all fields of inquiry."

"Competence and performance are different matters; one can be competent without always performing well."

"The mind-body problem arises from a fundamental confusion about logical types and categories."

"Reasoning is not a mysterious process but a skilled activity that can be studied and improved."

"Emotions are not inner episodes but dispositions to behave and think in characteristic ways."

"Teaching is not the transfer of knowledge but the development of competencies and dispositions."

"The concept of freedom is misunderstood when we treat it as the absence of all causation."

"Vanity is not merely self-love but a particular kind of concern with one's social standing."

"The nature of truth cannot be understood apart from the ways we use language to describe the world."

"Humor often arises from the recognition of incongruity and the unexpected application of concepts."

"Attention is not a special inner state but a mode of engaging with the world."