Bryan Magee’s career has included producing highly intellectual television programs for the BBC as well as teaching philosophy at Oxford. He writes that his true love is philosophy, but he also had to earn a living. This book is couched in a biographical framework, but the author explains its actual aim is to explicate the teachings of many of the world’s great philosophers. Thus, while he tells the story of how he came to be so invested in philosophy, he also explores, in an entertaining and accessible way, the ideas of many great philosophers throughout western history.

Magee learned much of his knowledge of philosophy [that field of study that addresses questions about life, existence, and the universe, inter alia] as a student at Oxford, but a primary thrust of the book is to discredit what he calls “Oxford Philosophy.” He avers that philosophy at Oxford veered away from the most important issues of the field (in his view, understanding the real world) and emphasized epistemology at the expense of ontology.

[Both epistemology and ontology are branches of philosophy. Ontology asks what does really exist, while epistemology is concerned with the question of how you come to believe what you know. While they are related, they generate entirely different emphases for study. Ontologists might ask, “Is there a God?” whereas epistemologists look at how and why people have come to their particular beliefs about God.]

The book traces the development of western philosophy from the pre-Socratics through Plato (whom he rates as one of the two greatest philosophers); through the Middle Ages; to the English empiricists including Immanuel Kant (the other greatest philosopher in his judgment) and Schopenhauer; to Bertrand Russell and his epigones; and finally to Karl Popper.

In Magee’s view, Bertrand Russell did such an excellent job of analyzing the use of the role of language in formulating philosophical propositions that his followers lost sight of what should be the true goal of philosophy and identified language analysis as the entirety of the field. It is certainly a tempting, not to mention, productive focus for philosophy, as well as for Biblical and constitutional exegesis: language is not only about grammar and vocabulary, which can supply their own ambiguities. It is also about nuance and culture, values and perceptions, and local and contemporary references that may supply entirely different meanings of words in different contexts. But to this author, language parsing should only be a subsection of philosophical analysis.

As for Kant, to Magee his greatness lay in his distinction between the noumenal (the thing in “itself”) and the phenomenal (what can be perceived about the thing). What we, as humans, can perceive about anything is limited by our sense detectors, as enhanced by any clever sense-extending technology we are able to develop. We simply do not know whether there is anything else or any quality of a thing that we cannot detect. So the actual thing in itself is forever hidden from us. We can know only its qualities or characteristics subject to our sensory detectors.

Magee actually met Russell several times and knew Popper pretty well. He asserts that Russell was a superb analyst, but he never claimed philosophy did not extend beyond mere analysis as many later Oxford philosophers contended. Popper’s major contribution to our understanding, according to Magee, was his analysis of the process of induction; he agreed with Hume that one could never prove the truth of a proposition about the state of the world. However, Popper argued that induction was still very useful because under the principle of falsifiability it could demonstrate the falsity of a proposition by finding just one inconsistency. Popper also believed we might approach the truth asymptotically through induction. [The asymptotic philosopher is one who aims to come as close as possible to explaining the world in spite of our human limitations. It comes from the mathematical concept of approaching increasingly closer to knowing a particular value or line without ever reaching it.]

Magee concludes that we cannot know the nature of total reality, but we have difficulty in accepting this situation. As to moral judgments, he says “we can no more prove that our moral convictions are valid than we can prove that the rules of logic are valid, just as we cannot prove that there is a reality external to ourselves.” Instead, our aim “should be, not to prove anything, but to find out, and properly to understand, what the truth is about what is.”

Evaluation: Magee very competently explicates the theories of various philosophers. His biographical interludes provide a little respite from some very dense and arcane analysis. This book is well worth reading, but will be better appreciated by readers with some background in western philosophy.

(JAB) ( )

The book starts off on a rather unpromising note, with the author's childhood musings on such hard questions as the nature of reality, the question why anything exists, what human existence means in the larger universe, and so on. Too much brooding on such questions is likely to lead to a mental breakdown, which the author remarks is not unusual among philosophers. Indeed, great thinkers and preceptors, such as the Buddha, have even dissuaded their followers from going down such intellectual pathways. It piques the reader's interest, however, and encourages a fuller reading of the book, if nothing else, to discover whether the author actually found any credible answers to such fundamental questions. As one may expect, he does not find the answers, but in the process he produces a series of radio and television programs on philosophy and religion, which brings him into direct contact with the leading intellectuals and religious leaders of the times, as well as providing him the time to study the old writings in detail. He finally is saved from mental collapse by discovering Shopenhauer, who sounds like the Upanishads. For this reader, coming from a background of Hinduism and having skimmed Advaita philosophy, the author's fear of annihilation (with death) sounds quite excessive. In Indic philosophy, self and not-self, real and not-real, are sort of turned on their heads, so that demise of the physical body is not to be taken too seriously. In Advaita, the individual self just merges with a universal entity, like the ripples on the ocean surface. Even though the author has read enough Buddhist and Hindu philosophy to understand this, he still expresses terror at his own inevitable annihilation, Read this book only if you have a strong faith in your own immortality! ( )

Bryan Magee is best known for his pioneering popularization of philosophy through television, radio, and literature, all of which is unparalleled in its accessible presentation of genuine intellectual substance. Confessions of a Philosopher is his literary masterpiece, a compelling, entirely captivating work of great readability that chronicles from childhood his personal philosophical development. It is not exactly an autobiography, as Magee's clarifies in the beginning: "This book introduces the reader to philosophy and its history through the story of one person's encounter with them. So it is about ideas: the autobiographical element is medium, not message." At the end of the book, he offers a clear description of his literary intentions: "In this book I have tried to show how life itself hurled fundamental problems of philosophy in my face, what I tried to do about it, how I discovered what the geniuses of philosophy had said about my problems, and what use they were to me. Although this has involved me, inevitably, in a lot of discussion of books and writers, this book is not about study or reading, or writing, or teaching, but about a lived and anguished absorption in the most important and difficult of all the non-moral problems that are encountered in a human life."

Disillusioned with the analytic philosophy that dominated Oxford during his undergraduate studies, Magee embarks on an existentially vigorous search for a philosophy that contemplates the traditional philosophical problems, such as the nature of perception, metaphysical reality, and the meaning of existence; fundamental philosophical problems which analytic philosophers and scientific theorists simply do not possess, thus are unconcerned with. Through his development, Magee occupies his time with writing books, political work (ten years in the British Parliament), and broadcasting in radio and television. Over a lengthy, diverse, and prolific career, he effectively manages a balance between individual pursuit of personal interests (intellectual, cultural, artistic, social) and paid employment. He insisted that his paid work could not interfere or compromise his personal work, the latter being held by him to be his real work and the former merely a means to support it. Though his very being is consumed with profound existential agony and uncertainty, he proves impressively resilient and reliable through many difficulties, both private (in terms of his introspective life) and public. The book maintains a challenging equilibrium of deeply personal introspection and recounts of various public experiences; challenging, because the reader is never allowed to rest comfortably (or uncomfortably, as it may be) with either side, a form of presentation that is the right choice for a writer who wishes his work to appropriately reflect the reality of lived life.

His experience at Oxford was frustrating particularly because none of the philosophy professors, nor any of the assigned philosophical readings, addressed his original philosophical problems. His time at Yale proved a refreshing experience, but it wasn't until he conducted his own exploration through the writings of the great philosophers that he began to find his deeply felt concerns adequately confronted. In London. he began work in radio and television broadcasting intellectually oriented yet accessibly conversational programs. His work as an anchor for British current affairs programs involved extensive traveling and allowed him to see first hand the reality of a variety of political circumstances. Though his political occupation was rooted in leftist leanings, he remained steadfastly objective and sincere in his political observations. A particularly significant moment in his intellectual progression was his reading of Karl Popper's Open Society and its Enemies. At Oxford, he attended a conference at which Popper gave a lecture arguing the origin of the Western tradition of critical and theoretical thought to be found in the teachings of Thales, resulting in the idea that knowledge develops through critical theory rather than by the collective gathering of information. Magee was thoroughly fascinated with this thesis because it posed a serious threat to centuries of philosophical assumptions, but particularly to the at-the-time dominant analytic philosophy, the leading practitioners of which were in attendance and willfully ignored the most critically damaging and therefore intellectually significant ideas of Popper's lecture. This was infuriating to Magee. who immediately wrote to Popper, and addressed areas where he thought Popper had gone wrong in the structure and emphasis of his presentation, resulting in a lengthy yet intellectually tumultuous friendship between the two. Magee also developed a close friendship with Bertrand Russell. His chapters on getting to know Popper and Russell are compelling in that he does a fantastic job of bringing these highly distinctive personalities to life through his detailed observations and descriptions of their peculiar characteristics.

Magee's books covered a wide variety of topics, including politics (The New Radicalism, The Democratic Revolution), social commentary (Towards 2000), homosexuality (One in Twenty), broadcasting (The Television Interviewer), music (Aspects of Wagner), and existential novels (Facing Death). In his mid-30s he experienced a profound existential crisis during which he struggled with the ultimate vanity of all human endeavor and was intensely driven to discover a deeper meaning in life. He writes about this experience reflectively but with passion and moving expression, demonstrating a clear and striking awareness of the human condition. It is the most compelling section of a very engrossing book. He spent the next few years reading the great philosophers and authors as if it were a matter of life and death, along with the writings of mystics and major religious texts, desperately hoping to find intellectual or spiritual deliverance from his inner torment. His most significant discovery was the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, which made upon him a life-altering impact similar to the experiences of Nietzsche and Wagner when they first encountered the great German philosopher's work. Magee wrote The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, the best English-language study of Schopenhauer's thought yet published.

This is a highly rewarding and memorable reading experience. It will prove particularly special for the reader who rejects analytic and linguistic philosophy in favor of classic 'big-question' philosophy, has gone through an existential crisis, discovered profound value in Schopenhauer's philosophy, or simply enjoys reading about the experiences of others who have embarked on their own philosophical journeys. Like all of Magee's work, it is accessible without sacrificing intellectual depth, motivated by a genuine interest in communicating ideas in a presentation that harmonizes with and reflects lived experience.

The book is a biographical sketch of Magee's intellectual life. I began by reading the chapters on Kant and Schopenhauer and liked Magee's writing so much I read the rest. Magee is entertaining and candid. The book should be an encouragement to anyone who enjoys studying philosophy. ( )

Confessions of a Philosopher began slowly for me, but my perseverance was rewarded. After the initial chapter the book felt more like an engaging conversation with a brilliant friend. It is to Magee's credit that his musings on specific philosophers (Wittgenstein, Popper, Hume, Kant and Schopenhauer) whetted my appetite to read their original works. ( )