Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Books

Driving the Ghost from the Machine

Alan Brody reviews The Metaphysics of Mind by Anthony Kenny.

The most famous theory in the philosophy of mind is René Descartes’ view that each human being consists of a mind (which is a non-physical, purely spiritual thing) inhabiting a body, which is completely material and subject to the laws of physics. This theory, called Cartesian Dualism, was ridiculed by Gilbert Ryle, who called it the Dogma of the Ghost in the Machine. Anthony Kenny wants to explain mental phenomena in terms of the physical and its capacities. He argues against the Cartesian view according to which the mind and its contents are non-physical, non-publicly observable phenomena that interact with the physical brain “in a mysterious manner that transcends the normal rules of causality and evidence.” (p.

…