Philosophy A-Level
Category Mistake
What Category Mistake means in Philosophy A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definitions of Category Mistake
Exam boards and our study guides word this term in slightly different ways. Learn the version your board uses.
An error in which things of one kind are presented as if they belonged to another, as identified by Gilbert Ryle regarding the 'Ghost in the Machine'.
Gilbert Ryle's term for treating the mind as a 'thing' or substance rather than a way of describing behavioral dispositions.
Treating a concept as belonging to a logical category that it does not belong to.
Topics that use Category Mistake
- Metaphysics of mind (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- Eliminative Materialism
- Epiphenomenalism
- Folk Psychology
- Functionalism
- Leibniz's Law
- Multiple Realizability
- Non-reductive Physicalism
- Property Dualism
Using Category Mistake in the exam
Definition questions usually carry one or two marks, and examiners look for the precise wording. Write the definition from memory, check it against the version above, and then use the term in a longer answer on the same topic so it sticks.
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