Ryle and Behaviorism
Gilbert Ryle begins the last section of The Concept of Mind (1949) with a prophecy: "The general trend of this book will undoubtedly, and harmlessly be stigmatised as 'behaviourist'" (Ryle, 327). He was certainly right about the stigma, but he may have grossly underestimated the threat it would pose. Behaviorism is the pivot on which Ryle's legacy hinges. Jason Stanley, a prominent philosopher of language, and Julia Tanney, a leading Ryle scholar, disagree on how to characterize Ryle's relationship to behaviorism. Tanney argues that Ryle wasn't a behaviorist of any sort, not even a 'soft' behaviorist. She says the "soft behaviorist" view is the standard (but mistaken) interpretation of Ryle, according to which "statements containing mental terms can be translated, without loss of meaning, into subjunctive conditionals about what the individual will do in various circumstances." In chapter one of his recent book, Know H...