Word.ws English Dictionary

Ryle's regress

Ryle's regress proper noun: the paradoxical situation whereby, if one accepts the cognitivist theory that every action is preceded by a thought, each thought must also be preceded by another thought, and so thinking could apparently never begin.

Proper noun

Ryle's regress

  1. The paradoxical situation whereby, if one accepts the cognitivist theory that every action is preceded by a thought, each thought must also be preceded by another thought, and so thinking could apparently never begin.

Origin of Ryle's regress

Described by Gilbert Ryle.

Questions about Ryle's regress

What does Ryle's regress mean?
Ryle's regress means the paradoxical situation whereby, if one accepts the cognitivist theory that every action is preceded by a thought, each thought must also be preceded by another thought, and so thinking could apparently never begin.
What part of speech is Ryle's regress?
Ryle's regress is a proper noun.

Words near Ryle's regress in the dictionary

  1. Ryland Heights
  2. Rylander
  3. Rylanders
  4. Rylands
  5. Ryle
  6. Ryle's regress
  7. Ryle's tube
  8. Rylean
  9. Rylee
  10. Ryleigh
  11. Rylen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ryle's regress (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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