Patricia asked:

When I studied Philosophy at Surrey University in the 1970s, I remember our lecturer reading from a
book which cited the case of a foreigner visiting Oxford who asked the question: "Where is the
University?" I cannot remember the reply to the question or the title of the book or the philosopher in
question. However, I am writing a book about sources of information for the construction industry. Not
only are the relevant organisations diverse and fragmented but some of the established sources
(libraries for instance) are becoming more distributed and virtual, with company libraries
decentralising.

I would love to locate the answer to the philosophical question, its source, the wording and the
philosopher concerned. It might make a suitable quote for the concluding chapter of my book.

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The quote is from Gilbert Ryle's 'Categories' (1938), in which he tells of someone visiting Oxford and,
having been promised a tour of the university, and having seen the lecture theatres, the sports hall
the libraries and the administrative buildings, then asks "but where is the university". He uses this as
an example of a 'category error', in this case the visitor is mistakenly thinking that 'university' belongs
to the same category of entities as a 'building'. This was used to illustrate Ryle's argument that when
we puzzle over what 'mind' is, we are making the 'category error' of assuming it is some sort of
quasi-physical entity, leading to what he called The Dogma of the Ghost in the Machine- the view that
the mind is some sort of ghostly entity independent of the body.

Glyn Hughes

This may be a reference to Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind.In Chapter 1 section 2 (see note),
Ryle introduces and explains the concept of 'Category Mistake'. He gives the example of the foreigner
visiting Oxford for the first time. He is shown the colleges, the libraries, playing fields, museums,
registry etc. He then asks 'But where is the University? I have seen where the members of the
Colleges live and work and where the administrators and the rest work. But I have not yet seen the
University ....'

It then has to be explained to him that the University is not another 'collateral institution' or some
'ulterior counterpart' to the colleges and other buildings he has seen. The University is just the way all
that he has already seen is organised and co-ordinated.

The visitor's mistake was to assume that the University belongs to the same class or category as
Christ Church, the Bodleian and the Ashmolean. That it is just another member of that class or
category of things. In simple, the visitor has made a category mistake.

Ryle's general purpose is to argue that people such as Descartes, who talk about the mind as if it
were a non-material substance separate from the physical body and extra to it, commit a similar
category mistake because really talk about the mind and mental states is actually just talk about the
body and bodily behaviour.

He refers to the official Descartean doctrine as 'the dogma (or myth)of the Ghost in the Machine'.
That now notorious phrase indicates the tone and style of the rest of the book which is written so
engagingly that The Concept of Mind is one of the few philosophy books that even beginners can
actually read through from cover to cover and enjoy doing so. It became known as 'Le style, Ryle'.

[Note: the precise reference is page 16 of the Hardback edition first published by Hutchinson in 1949,
with many subsequent reprints.]

John Sartoris

The book you are after is: Ryle, G.(1949) The Concept of Mind.Penguin.

The quote you are after starts from a paragraph beginning on page 17.

""A foreigner visiting Oxford or Cambridge for the first time is shown a number of colleges, libraries,
playing fields, museums, scientific departments and administrative offices. He then asks 'But where is
the University? I have seen where the members of the College live, where the Registrar works, where
the scientists experiment and the rest. But I have not yet seen the University in which reside and work
the members of your University.' It has then to be explained to him that the University is not another
collateral institution, some ulterior counterpart to the colleges, laboratories and offices which he has
seen. The university is just the way in which all that he has already seen is organized." [Ryle
1949:17-18.]"

Julian Bennett