Inheritance and Originality

Inheritance and Originality is worth reading for anyone interested in a close and nuanced reading of Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Kierkegaard. British Journal of the History of Philosophy For Mulhall to have covered three such disparate figures in such a thorough way, yet to have managed to integrate the analyses into a convincing whole, is a very considerable achievement. The book is also remarkable for the way in which it implicitly challenges the impoverished models of philosophy that are currently on offer from the contemporary analytic and continental academic stables respectively. Few will complete the volume without a strong sense of how philosophical inquiry that challenges those models can contribute powerfully to our understanding of language in general, and the language of religion in particular. Religious Studies To anyone who loves Heidegger and Wittgenstein, the name Stephen Mulhall immediately evokes feeling of gratitude ... Mulhall in this book brings a narrative eloquence and master precision to his interpretations ... a sterling performance. Philosophical Investigations It is in Mulhall's textual analyses of these works that his book especially shines. His readings are exceedingly close and sensitive, and more than repay the not insubstantial demands that they place upon the reader. From the outset, one gets the sense from Mulhall that there are still new and important insights to be reaped by freshly reconsidering works that have already received a huge amount of attention, and throughout the book he delivers on this promise. This makes it a real pleasure to read ... There is much to consider in this book. It is rigorously argued, and opens up Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Kierkegaard in new and interesting ways. Mind Mulhall's readings are rich, provocative and sometimes compelling ... [Reading the book] is a long and demanding journey ... to those who undertake it, Inheritance and Originality offers a complex vision of the dispensation required for a transfiguration of our moral - and religious - consciousness. David E Cooper, Times Literary Supplement