Etymology

category mistake

Today it means: A semantic or ontological error by which a property (or category) is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Popularized by philosopher Gilbert Ryle in The Concept of Mind (1949), where it is applied to the notion of a ghost in the machine.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.