The man behind the philosopher

Gilbert Ryle was born in Brighton in 1900. He read first Classics and Philosophy and then Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen's College, Oxford. He was appointed to a lectureship at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1924. After war service in Intelligence, he was elected to the Wayneflete Professorship in Metaphysical Philosophy in 1945. He died in 1976, still active in philosophy. Apart from his service during the Second World War, and occasional although extensive travels, he spent the whole of his life in Oxford.

In later life he was an impressive, somewhat “military” figure. Through the editorship of Mind and his dominant role in developing the philosophy graduate school in Oxford, he exercised an almost worldwide influence on how philosophy developed in the 1950s and 1960s, and who occupied teaching positions over a large part of the globe. He was an indefatigable traveller, willing to go to the ends of the earth to present his ideas. His lectures were animated versions of his writings, with the same charm and the same method of presentation. Surprisingly, he had little talent for informal discussion. If challenged he would fall back on the points he had made in a lecture.

Ryle had very high standards for the conduct proper to members of the academic profession. Strong argument was not to be confused with personal abuse. As editor of Mind, he caused a stir by refusing to review Ernest Gellner's attack on Oxford philosophy, on the grounds that it was adhominem rather than argumentative.