Bryan Magee

Early life

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. During this formative period, he developed a keen interest in socialist politics, while during the school holidays he enjoyed listening to political orators at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park, London as well as regular visits to the theatre and concerts.

During his National Service he served in the British Army and in the Intelligence Corps seeking possible spies among the refugees crossing the border between Yugoslavia and Austria. After demobilisation he won a scholarship to Keble College, Oxford where he studied History as an undergraduate and then Philosophy, Politics and Economics in one year. His friends at Oxford included Robin Day, William Rees-Mogg, Jeremy Thorpe and Michael Heseltine. While at university, Magee was elected president of the Oxford Union. He spent a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a post-graduate fellowship. He is an honorary fellow at Keble College, Oxford.

Politician

He returned to Britain from Yale in 1958 with hopes of becoming a Labour Member of Parliament (MP). He twice stood unsuccessfully for Mid Bedfordshire, at the 1959 general election and the 1960 by-election, and instead took 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).

He was eventually elected MP for Leyton at the February 1974 general election, but found himself out of tune with the Labour Party's leftward tendencies under Michael Foot. On 22 January 1982 he resigned the Labour whip and he subsequently (in March 1982) joined the defection of moderate Labour MPs to the newly founded Social Democratic Party. He lost his seat at the 1983 general election and returned to writing and broadcasting which, indeed, he had continued during his parliamentary career.

Broadcaster and writer

At Oxford, Magee had mixed with poets as well as politicians and in 1951 published a volume of verse through the Fortune Press. The publisher did not pay its writers and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves – a similar deal had been struck with such writers as Dylan Thomas and Philip Larkin for their first anthologies. The slim volume was dedicated to the memory of Richard Wagner, with a quote from Rilke's Duino Elegies: ... das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen ("... beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear"). Magee said later: "I'm rather ashamed of the poems now, although I have written poems since which I haven't published, which I secretly think are rather good. It has always been a dimension of what I do."

Magee's most important influence in popular culture, however, remains his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman. In 1970–1971, he presented a series for BBC Radio entitled Modern British Philosophy. The series took the form of Magee in conversation with a number of contemporary British and American philosophers, discussing both their own work, the work of earlier 20th century British philosophers (and Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper), and the relationship between philosophy and other fields such as religion and the arts. The series began with an introductory conversation between Magee and British philosopher Anthony Quinton. Other programs included discussions on Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore and J. L. Austin, and the relationship between philosophy and religion, among others. The transcripts of the series are available in the book, Modern British Philosophy.

In 1978, Magee presented for BBC television 15 dialogues with noted philosophers in a series called Men of Ideas. Following an "Introduction to Philosophy" presented by Magee in discussion with Isaiah Berlin, Magee discussed topics like Marxist philosophy, the Frankfurt School, the ideas of Chomsky and modern Existentialism in subsequent episodes. Transcripts of the dialogues within the Men of Ideas series are available in published form in the book, Talking Philosophy.

Another BBC television series, The Great Philosophers, followed in 1987. In this series, Magee discussed the major historical figures of Western philosophy with fifteen contemporary philosophers. The series covered the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, among others, ending with a discussion with John Searle on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. Transcripts of The Great Philosophers are available in published form in a book of the same name. The Story of Thought (also published as The Story of Philosophy) also covers the history of Western philosophy.

In 1997 Magee's Confessions of a Philosopher was published, which essentially offered an introduction to philosophy in autobiographical form. The book was involved in a libel lawsuit as a result of Magee repeating the rumour that Ralph Schoenman, a controversial associate of Bertrand Russell during the philosopher's final decade, had been planted by the CIA in an effort to discredit Russell. Schoenman successfully sued Magee for libel in the UK, with the result that the first printing of the British edition of the book was pulped. A second defamation suit, filed in California against Random House, was settled in 2001. The allegations were expunged by settlement, and a new edition was issued and provided to more than 700 academic and public libraries. 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 critique of analytic philosophy, particularly in its linguistic form 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; 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 (1968; rev. ed. 1988), and The Tristan Chord: 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).

Magee's novel Facing Death, published in 1977, was originally written under the title Love Story, though it is not to be confused with the 1970 film of the same name, nor the book by Erich Segal upon which that film was based.

In 2016, approaching his 86th birthday, Magee has his book Ultimate Questions published by Princeton University. Writing in The Independent, Julian Baggini said "Magee doesn't always match his clarity of expression with rigour of argument, sometimes ignoring his own principle that the feeling "Yes, surely this must be right" is "not a validation, not even a credential". But this can be excused. Plato and Aristotle claimed that philosophy begins with wonder. Magee is proof that for some, the wonder never dies, it only deepens."

Personal life

In 1953 Magee was appointed to a teaching job in Sweden and while there met Ingrid Soderlund, a pharmacist in the university laboratory. They married and had one daughter, Gunnela and, in time, also three grandchildren. Magee later said: "The marriage broke up pretty quickly and it was a fairly disastrous period of my life. I came back to Oxford as a postgraduate. But since then Sweden has been a part of my life. I go there every year and my daughter visits me. I always assumed that sooner or later I'd get married again but it never quite happened, although I had some very long relationships. And now I don't want to get married again. I like the freedom."

His autobiography, Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood, won the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 2004.