Stephen Mulhall

4-5.30pm | Wednesday 4 February 2009
Lecture Room, Faculty of Philosophy, 10 Merton Street, University of Oxford

Speaker
Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, New College, Oxford

Chair
Simon Glendinning, Reader in European Philosophy, European Institute, LSE and Director of the Forum for European Philosophy

This dialogue marks the opening of the Oxford Forum, an offspring of the well-establish Forum for European Philosophy. At first glance, it might seem that conjoining Wittgenstein’s name with a question primarily associated with Heidegger must involve a simple category mistake; but the matter is, in fact, more controversial than it appears. For whilst Herman Philipse, for example, has argued that one can only think of posing the question of Being if one is captivated by an ‘Augustinian picture of language’, Rush Rhees claimed that one misunderstands Wittgenstein altogether if one fails to see the pertinence of this question to this central concerns. Two leading scholars with exceptional expertise in both Wittgenstein and Heidegger will meet to debate the issue, with the aim of opening up a broad range of thought-provoking questions and possibilities for further discussion.