ABSTRACT
In thinking there are many things that we may do. To characterize these doings as thinking is to put a kind of adverbial qualification on them, a fact which is reflected in the grammatical nature of the verbs that are used to describe the thinking; the class of verbs in question, Gilbert Ryle says, might be termed the class of adverbial verbs. The concept of thinking, as he has said in several places, is a polymorphous concept, in that the activity of thinking may take many forms. That is to say that the activities of saying things to ourselves, going through things in our minds, is what thinking is provided that certain contextual conditions are satisfied; or all events these are the only things we do, there is no further process called thinking. This is a reductionist thesis in the sense that reduces thinking to performing these activities in these circumstances thinking is nothing but these things with qualifications specified.
