Abstract

The essay opens with a brief reconstruction of the way the mind-body problem has been understood and approached in modern thought and, in particular, in the context of Cartesian dualism. The so-called «dissolutionist» approach is then introduced, exemplified with the very different philosophical positions of Ryle and Heidegger. The central part of the essay is devoted to a discussion of the way in which Wittgenstein tried to show that at the basis of many doctrines developed as an answer to the mind-body problem (in particular, dualism and behaviourism) lie what he calls «grammatical fictions».