Gilbert Ryle

Ryle, a mainstay of British philosophy, was known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, and coined the phrase ‘the ghost in the machine’. Austin was a colleague at Oxford, Ayer and Dennett (of whom he was very fond) among his students. He supervised Adorno’s thesis; they had a productive relationship despite their very different philosophical heritages. Wittgenstein was a friend — they went on walking holidays together — and said Ryle was one of only two people to understand him (they later fell out, Wittgenstein calling him a charlatan). He told Strawson that he read all of Jane Austen’s novels every year.