The Intellectualist Legend

The intellectualist legend is Ryle's label for the Western philosophical tradition's central mistake about the relationship between theory and practice: the belief that intelligent action is always the execution of prior theoretical knowledge, that the skilled practitioner first contemplates a rule and then applies it. On this view, the chess master consults principles before moving, the orator applies the rules of rhetoric, the physician deduces treatment from textbook propositions. The legend is flattering to theorists — it places them at the top of every hierarchy — which is why it has survived its own refutation for nearly eighty years. Ryle's regress argument demonstrates that the legend is incoherent: rule-application is itself an action that can be performed well or badly, which would require further rules, and so on without terminus. Intelligent action, if the legend were true, could never begin.