Howard Owen Mounce (born 1939) is a British philosopher and Honorary Fellow of Swansea University. He was a long-serving lecturer on philosophy at the then University College of Swansea. Influenced by Rush Rhees, he is amongst those labelled as members of the "Swansea School" or as "Swansea Wittgensteinians". He is a former editor-of Philosophical Investigations, and has made contributions to a broad range of areas including the philosophy of language, the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.
H. O. Mounce was born in early 1939 in Swansea (then in Glamorganshire).
A student (and later colleague) of Rush Rhees, who Hertzberg describes as a "formative influence". Mounce obtained his B.A. in 1961 from the then University College of Swansea. He remained there as a tutor over 1962âÂÂ1963, He was then a lecturer at the then University College of Cardiff 1963âÂÂ1968, before returning to Swansea as a lecturer in philosophy in 1968/1969. He remained at Swansea, latterly with the position of Senior Lecturer in Philosophy (finally at the then University of Wales at Swansea), until 1999 when he was then elected an honorary fellow of what is now Swansea University. Mounce is, along with D. Z. Phillips, ðlham Dilman,and R. W. Beardsmore, amongst those later thinkers who, along with Rhees, Peter Winch and R. F. Holland came to be labelled (by others) from the 1960s on as members of the "Swansea School" or as "Swansea Wittgensteinians".
He was the editor-in-chief of the Philosophical Investigations, a journal in which the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein is consistently highlighted, from 2006 to 2022. He took over the position following the death of Phillips and continued in that role until he was succeeded by Mario Von Der Ruhr.
Mounce has, as Weston notes, published books on American Pragmatism, David Hume, moral philosophy (with D.Z. Phillips) and WittgensteinâÂÂs Tractatus, and articles on a wide range of topics "from Zande witchcraft to the smell of coffee". Many of these works are said by Weston to exhibit the influence of the philosophy of Wittgenstein.