On Being in the World, first published in 1990, illumines a neglected but important area of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, revealing its pertinence to the central concerns of contemporary analytic philosophy.

The starting point is the idea of ‘continuous aspect perception’, which connects Wittgenstein’s treatment of certain issues relating to aesthetics with fundamental questions in the philosophy of psychology. Professor Mulhall indicates parallels between Wittgenstein’s interests and Heidegger’s Being and Time, demonstrating that Wittgenstein’s investigation of aspect perception is designed to cast light on much more than a bizarre type of visual experience: in reality, it highlights what is distinctively human about our behaviour in relation to things in the world, what it is that distinguishes our practical activity from that of automata.

On Being in the World remains an invaluable resource for students of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, as well as anyone interested in negotiating the division between analytic and continental philosophy.

Stephen Mulhall received a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford in 1983.[3] He then pursued an MA in Philosophy from The University of Toronto in 1984.[3] Between 1984 and 1988, he attended Balliol College and All Souls College, Oxford for his DPhil in Philosophy.[3] From 1986 to 1991 he was a Prize Fellow at All Souls College and in 1991 he became a Reader of Philosophy at the University of Essex.[3] From 1998 to the present he has been a fellow at New College, Oxford.[3]