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Bryan Magee.
Modern British Philosophy.
OUP. 1971

Bryan Magee’s general survey of contemporary British philosophy originates in a series of radio conversations with leading British philosophers. In them, he elicited their views on chosen subjects, ranging from influential philosophers, such as Russell, Wittgenstein, Moore, and Austin, to the relationship of philosophy to Morals, Religion, the Arts, and Social Theory.

As Magee makes clear in his Preface, contemporary British philosophy is at the moment experiencing an unprecedented openness to influences from abroad. There is new growth in many areas of traditional philosophy which had been neglected by the logical positivists and the linguistic analysts, and a sense of freedom is present in all Magee’s conversations. As an introduction to contemporary British philosophy, as a unique collection of commentaries by major British philosophers on their own work, and as a study of fresh ideas, Modern British Philosophy is consistently lively and authoritative.

Bryan Magee.
Popper.
Fontana. 1973

Karl Popper has been hailed by professional colleagues as the most formidable living critic of Marxism; as the greatest philosopher of science there has ever been; as a thinker whose influence is acknowledged by men of action as well as by an almost bewildering variety of scholars – and yet he remains comparatively unknown to the wider audience for whom this series is intended. This book is therefore as timely as it is brilliant. Bryan Magee demonstrates Popper’s importance across the whole range of philosophy; and in doing so provides a lively and up-to-date introduction to philosophy

Bryan Magee, Martin Milligan.
On Blindness.
OUP. 1995

On Blindness opens the eyes of the sighted to the world as experienced by the blind, offering a unique opportunity to explore the challenges, frustrations, joys—and extraordinary insights—experienced in the everyday business of discovering the world without sight. What difference does sight or its absence make to our ideas about the world?

What begins as a philosophical exchange between the noted philosopher and broadcaster Bryan Magee and the late Martin Milligan, activist and philosopher blind almost from birth, develops into a personal and intense discussion of the implications of blindness. The debate is vigorous and often heated; sometimes contentious, it is always stimulating. In discussing the range of blind experience, from those born blind to those who become blind—including those who have to cope with the shock of gaining sight they had never before possessed—On Blindness argues strongly against the notion that blindness is a simple experience. In doing so, this extraordinary book casts new light on one of the most fundamental aspects of human experience.

Bryan Magee.
Confessions of a Philosopher.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1997

‘Until I was five I shared a bed with my sister, three and a half years older than me. After our parents had switched out the light we would chatter away in the darkness until we fell asleep. But I could never afterwards remember falling asleep. It was always the same: one moment I was talking to my sister in the dark, and the next I was waking up in a sunlit room having been asleep all night. Yet every night there must have come a time when I stopped talking and settled down to sleep. It was incomprehensible to me that I did not experience that, and never remembered it.’

In this inspirational book Bryan Magee tells the story of his discovery of philosophy, and in doing so introduces the subject to his reader. The fundamental problems of philosophy are seen first of all as problems about the nature of reality, encountered in the course of living, not as difficulties in understanding the writings of philosophers. Experiences of everyday life provoke discussion of philosophers and explain why certain philosophical questions persistently exercise our minds. The book follows the progression of Magee’s life, so that problems and philosophers are discussed in the order in which he encountered them, rather than in chronological order.

By the end of the book Magee has acquainted the reader with all the outstanding figures in western philosophy from the pre-Socratics to the twentieth century, including two of the best of recent philosophers, Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, whom the author knew personally.

In this beautifully written book Magee lucidly and with great fluency untangles an obscure and difficult subject, making it seem part of everyday life. Intensely personal and brimming with infectious enthusiasm, Confessions of a Philosopher is a wonderful introduction to philosophy by one of the most elegant and accessible writers on the subject.