Product Description

Beginning with the death of Socrates in 399 BC, and following the story through the centuries to recent figures such as Bertrand Russell and Wittgenstein, Bryan Magee's conversations with fifteen contemporary writers and philosophers provide an accessible and exciting account of Western philosophy and its greatest thinkers. The contributors include A. J. Ayer, Bernard Williams, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer, and John Searle, so that the book is not only an introduction to the philosophers of the past, but gives an invaluable insight into the view and personalities of some of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196070 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Bryan Magee was born in London in 1930. He was educated at Oxford where he took two honours degrees and was President of the Oxford Union. He held a fellowship in philosophy at Yale until 1956 when he became an independent writer in philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1973 he was elected a Visiting Fellow of All Souls, Oxford. From 1974-6 he was a regular columnist on 'the Times' and in 1979 was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Television Society for his work in
broadcasting. Since 1994 he has been A Visiting Professor at King's College London and has published sixteen other books including Modern British Philosophy, Popper, Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, Aspects of Wagner, and On Blindness.

Customer Reviews

Magisterial
Bryan Magee's 'Introduction to Western Philosophy' is a brilliant analysis of the works of the most important Western philosophers from Plato to Bertrand Russell.

This book is based on a BBC TV series which was presented as a discussion between the author and one of the leading authorities on every philosopher.
During the discussions all the most important philosophical problems were tackled. To name a few: causality, determinism, free will, freedom, the existence of the self, the body-mind problem, the subject-object relationship, the problem of induction, tolerance, the problem of the just war or the basics of human nature ('the would-be knower is a biological organism struggling for survival').

This book is written in very clear, straightforward and very comprehensive prose, rather exceptional for this kind of work.
It gives a magisterial summary of the basic ideas of every philosopher. Into the bargain, it can be consulted easily for every chapter can be read independently.

I have only a few remarks. First, I miss one great philosopher of the 20th century: Karl Popper. I suppose that he was left out because he was still living when the book was published. On the other hand, Bryan Magee filled the gap by writing a separate book on Popper, which I recommend to everyone.
Secondly, I don't share his enthusiasm for the 'second' Wittgenstein and the latter's disastrous sliding into the morass of linguistics with his language games.

All in all, this book is a magisterial summary of 2500 years of Western philosophy. A must read.

A wonderful beginners' guide
This book contains the transcripts of interviews that Bryan Magee conducted on television with some fellow philosophers. In them they discuss all the main philosophers that you have heard of but assumes you know nothing about. It is therefore more like listening to Philosophy than reading it: it lacks the long verbose sentences for which philosophy books are famous and which scare beginners off; the dialogue is fluid and highly interesting and all in all makes a perfect introduction to anyone who has never studied philosophy before and wants to know what it's all about. People who have studied philosophy will not gain anything from it at all [try the Oxford Encyclopedia for that] as nothing is covered in great depth, but that is not the aim of the book. It is deep enough to dip your toe into though, and it achieves that aim wonderfully. Read it, find out which philosophers light your flame and then read more!!!

A very useful chronological guide to the great thinkers.
The most important feature of this book, is that it provides a well written and easily understanable guide to some of the greatest thinkers of philosophy. The author invites eminent experts in their field to discuss the work and lives of the great philosophers; from Plato to Witgenstein.This he then turns into a chronological account. A great introduction to anyone like myself starting on the philisophical road.