On Being in the World: Wittgenstein and Heidegger on Seeing Aspects

This study aims to cast new light on a neglected but important area of Wittgenstein's philosophy, and to reveal its pertinence to the central concerns of contemporary analytic philosophy. Its starting point is the belief that Wittgenstein's seemingly unsystematic remarks on seeing aspects of pictures and words, are in fact focused on a phenomenon which he labels "continuous aspect perception". This focus not only confers unity upon his treatment of the topic, but also connects that treatment with fundamental questions in the philosophy of psychology (taking issue with Davidsonian approaches to these matters, for example). By setting seeing aspects within this interpretative framework, the author seeks to demonstrate parallels between Wittgenstein's interest, and concerns at the heart of Heidegger's "Being and Time". This work strives to show that Wittgenstein's investigation of aspect perception is designed to illuminate much more than a bizarre type of visual experience. It highlights what is distinctively "human" about human behaviour in relation to things in the world, and elements which distinguish human practical activity from that of automata.