Bryan Magee
Bryan Magee (born
April 12,
1930) is a noted British broadcasting personality,
politician, and
author, best known as a popularizer of
philosophy.
Born of working class parents in
Hoxton, Magee was close to his father, but had a difficult relationship with his abusive and overbearing mother. An evacuee during
World War II, he was educated at
Christ's Hospital school on a
London County Council scholarship. He did
National Service in the
Army and served in the
Army Intelligence Corps seeking possible
spies among the refugees crossing the border between
Yugoslavia and
Austria. After demob he obtained a scholarship to
Keble College, Oxford where he read
History and
Philosophy. Friends there included
Robin Day,
William Rees-Mogg,
Jeremy Thorpe and
Michael Heseltine. While at Oxford Magee became interested in socialist politics and was elected president of the Oxford Union.
After a period at
Yale University, he returned to
Britain in
1958 with hopes of becoming a
Labour Member of Parliament. In this he was unsuccessful, and instead took up a job presenting the
ITV current affairs
television programme
This Week. He made documentary programmes about subjects of social concern such as
prostitution,
sexually transmitted diseases,
abortion and
homosexuality (illegal in Britain at the time).
In 1959, Magee met
Karl Popper and became close friends with the philosopher, even suggesting the eventual title of Popper's autobiography,
Unended Quest. Magee also suggested improvements for the first volume of Popper's
Open Society and Its Enemies.
He was eventually elected MP for
Leyton in
1974, but found himself out of tune with the Labour Party's leftward tendencies under
Michael Foot and was one of several Labour Members who joined the newly founded
Social Democratic Party in
1981. He lost his seat in
1983 and returned to writing and broadcasting (which, indeed, he had continued during his parliamentary career).
Magee's most important influence on society though, remains his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman. Transcripts of his television series "Men of Ideas" are available in published form in the book
Talking Philosophy. This book provides a readable and wide-ranging introduction to modern Anglo-American philosophy.
Another series and book,
The Great Philosophers, covers the history of Western philosophy, as does Magee's
The Story of Thought (also published as
The Story of Philosophy). Magee has also published
Confessions of a Philosopher (1997), which essentially offers an introduction to philosophy in the form of an autobiography. This latter book was involved in a libel lawsuit as a result of Magee repeating the rumor that
Ralph Schoenman, a controversial associate of
Bertrand Russell during the great philosopher's final decade, had been planted by the
CIA in an effort to discredit Russell. Schoenman successfully sued Magee for libel, with the result that the British edition of the book was pulped.
In
Confessions of a Philosopher, Magee charts his own philosophical development in an autobiographical context. He also emphasizes the importance of
Schopenhauer's philosophy as a serious attempt to solve philosophical problems. In addition to this, he launches a scathing critique of
analytic philosophy over three chapters, contesting its fundamental principles and lamenting its influence.
His book,
The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, (first published in 1983), remains one of the most substantial and wide-ranging treatments of
Schopenhauer to be found, it is particularly appreciated for its several essay-appendices in which Magee assesses in depth his influence on
Wittgenstein,
Wagner and other creative writers. He also addresses Schopenhauer's thoughts on
homosexuality and the influence of
Buddhism on his philosophy. He regards the work as his "academic magnum opus".
Magee has a particular interest in the life, thought and music of
Richard Wagner and has written two notable books on the composer and his world 'Aspects of Wagner' (1988), and 'Wagner and Philosophy' (2001). He is also an admirer of the philosophy of
Karl Popper on whom he has written an introduction (Modern Masters series, 1997).
His autobiography,
Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood, won the
J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in
2004.
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