Monday, June 7, 2021

ANOTHER STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE

Since the comments section has turned briefly to the subject of Gilbert Ryle, I thought I would just note that the very first philosophy journal article I ever published was a 2 1/2 page note criticizing Ryle's treatment of something called "agitations" in his book Concept of Mind.  The note appeared in 1954, when I was just 20 years old, and was taken from my undergraduate honors thesis. It appeared in a well-known English philosophy journal called MIND, which was edited by Ryle himself. Ryle apparently was quite supportive of young philosophers and had no hesitation publishing things critical of what he had written. Somebody named Corbett responded with a comment and I got to write a 1 1/2 page reply, so there I was, barely old enough to vote with two publications to my credit. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

4 comments:

  1. This is something that would NEVER happen today, I'm sad to say.

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  2. Very cool experience Professor Wolff. How do you assess Ryle today?

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  3. An aside about the journal Mind, which has been published as a quarterly philosophy journal since 1876. The journal once noted that "the United States Postal Service considers Mind 'second-class matter'."

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