Prose Supplements - Shop now
Buy used:
$22.14
FREE delivery March 26 - 31. Details
Used: Good | Details
Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Bryan Magee
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Confessions of a Philosopher Hardcover – January 1, 1997

by Bryan Magee (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 109 ratings
See all formats and editions
Magee is very good at untangling difficult concepts and giving you just enough on each philosopher so that you feel you know in essence what they were about. His enthusiasm is utterly infectious so that you want to read, or re-read, some of the philosophical works he discusses. He writes with great fluency and clarity, and makes you fell as if philosophy is something to do with your reality.
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    576 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.77 x 9.45 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0297819593
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0297819592
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Weidenfeld & Nicolson; First U.S. Edition (January 1, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0297819593
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0297819592
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.77 x 9.45 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 109 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Bryan Magee

Bryan Magee

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
109 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review
Philosophy
4 out of 5 stars
Philosophy
not as crisp or new as advertised, spine looks like it was broken into already. But, apart from this oversight not much to review, just got it now.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

  • Daniel Putman
    5.0 out of 5 stars A personal journey into what the human mind can grasp
    Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    This is an unusual book. A chapter called “The Search for Meaning” spends much of the chapter on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. That would be tough to find anywhere else. Likewise, few other books that are autobiographies spend several chapters explaining the philosophies of Popper and Schopenhauer. And very few biographies or autobiographies stimulate a reader’s mind as much as this one. Bryan Magee’s self-narrated life history is a challenge not because of the philosophers he discusses but because readers will be forced to ask themselves important questions about their own lives.

    Some background in philosophy or European intellectual history seems essential – not a great deal but enough to have a reasonable background in the history of Western thought. Magee does a great job of explaining the ideas of everybody from Plato to Russell but without some appreciation of the intellectual history of Europe it would still be extremely hard to connect the dots. A reader would also benefit from a prior personal interest in philosophical issues and the techniques of philosophers. A person has to care about what Magee is talking about. Finally, the book is almost completely Eurocentric (but that was the author’s life). Given these provisos, the reader will find this book both satisfying and thought-provoking. It may also simulate disagreement but that is exactly what the author is looking for. It is what happens in a good philosophy classroom and Magee is an excellent teacher in this book whether or not you agree with him. Magee is a lucid writer and his prior publishing and radio/television work is apparent. He knows how to present difficult material in a smooth and understandable fashion.

    Magee spends a great deal of time criticizing the analytical tradition in 20th century philosophy, especially linguistic analysis. If I have any criticism of the book’s structure, it is that he goes a little overboard on this and is somewhat repetitive. I also did not get much out of the chapter about the writing of his novel, though anybody with an interest in writing fiction might get a great deal out of it. He also argues at length for the ideas of Kant and Schopenhauer which had a profound effect on him. Whether you agree with him or not, Magee does what a good teacher or writer should do, i.e., help the student or reader get past the speaker’s words to the deeper issues the words are trying to grasp. Philosophers sometimes have a problem with that. If Kant’s “noumena” is real and unknowable by concepts alone, then the art of Magee’s writing lets the reader get a glimpse of the critical importance and power of nonconceptual experiences. Like the artists he praises in the book, Magee gets us to consider seriously what is within our mental grasp and what may be beyond our concepts. The book is an intellectual journey well worth taking.
    13 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Michael B. Cahill
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most enjoyable explorations of the lives and thoughts of the best and brightest.
    Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Bryan Magee's Confessions of a Philosopher is an absolute joy to read and re-read.

    Most chapters are written in a comfortable and conversational personal essay form, which appealed to me greatly - as I often felt like I was having a long chat with deeply wise friend. The entire work is plain spoken but always powerful, deep and thought provoking.

    His sections on Popper, Russell, Wittgenstein, and most particularly on Kant and Schopenhauer were particularly of interest to me, as I had not explored the latter two in any significant depth previously.

    Studiously ignoring Magee's direct advice, I next acquired and absorbed his excellent book dedicated to Schopenhauer rather than following his clear admonition to stick first to the original source material. Magee is very often but not always right, but he always identifies the right questions and issues, which he also rightly states is often the most important and key contribution of many of the greatest philosophers.

    This is one of the most enjoyable excursions in my last 40+ years of exploration in the the lives and thoughts of the best and brightest. Many thanks for your efforts.
    18 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • MADC
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting journey....
    Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    Having read Magee's outstanding book on Popper, I got interested in this "biography"...which I knew was some kind of introduction...I have found his confessions to be very interesting and if you want to say so..they apply in some aspects, mainly in what he says about his midlife crisis, not just to himself, but to a lot of us. Regarding the "introductory" part of the book..the chapters on Kant, Popper, Russell and Schopenhauer are very good indeed, and some of the explanations that he brings forward are very much to the point and very clarifying. This is due to the fact that Mr. Magee is a very good writer and I would add, very honest. The way he puts his ideas in writing are very easy to follow and to digest. Get this book if you are really interested in Philosophy...
    3 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Keith C.
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Philosopher's Journey
    Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is the type of book often written by scholars at the end of his career that looks back on their educational journey and shares what they learned along the way. An excellent recent example of this type of work are the reflections of Bernard Lewis.
    Magee begins with the thought experiments that he made as a child and takes us on the roundabout journey he made to a formal study of philosophy ( recommending some influential books along the way)
    At this point the book begins to become more of a history of philosophic thought ( if you are reading this you have probably read Sophie's World), but it is refreshingly honest in parts - as when he says philosophers pretend to doubt things ( like the existence of others ) which they know perfectly well exist.
    I would give the work 5 stars except for Magee's refusal to think about the existence of God. His dismissal of anything outside of the material universe by saying that he simply never gave it any thought is simply lazy and not credible.
    6 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Zen9
    5.0 out of 5 stars A wise guide
    Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    This is the late Mr. Magee's intellectual autobiography. We followed similar philosophical paths up to and including Kant; we parted company at Schopenhauer. But I read every word of this book with great interest. In particular, I will always be grateful to Mr. Magee for insisting that I read Popper.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • William Haynes
    5.0 out of 5 stars Our best living philosophical writer
    Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    This will be short. Brian Magee is without doubt our best living philosophical writer. There are some other great ones. But trust me - get Mr. Magee's books and read them closely. Then re-read them. Then re-read them again. I don't know anyone in any field who is more important and less heralded. But don't worry. His reputation will grow.
    4 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • W. White
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent survey, engrossing memoir
    Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    As I've come to expect from Bryan Magee, his writing about philosophers, philosophy and philosophical problems is cogent and lucid. This is a great starting point for people who want to learn more about the subject, because his descriptions will make you hungry to read the great works of philosophy.
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • William Sanderson
    5.0 out of 5 stars The story of Magee's intellectual development
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is a fascinating book. It doesn't take the form of an ordinary biography-it's more like the story of Magee's intellectual development. If you are looking for a more typical biography I believe he has written one which can be found elsewhere. This book goes from Magee's childhood musings on space and the cause of the universe, to his university years where he became acquainted with academic philosophy, and later still to his career as a producer, music critic and presenter. Along the way it outlines the work of those who influenced Magee greatly: Kant, Popper and Schopenhauer get their own chapters. Thus, it is not only interesting as a story of Magee's intellectual development, but also doubles as an overview of philosophy in general. Magee possesses a gift for explaining quite complex ideas in a clear and concise fashion which is demonstrated very well in this book. If you want an entertaining introduction to philosophy, this is it. I would also recommend other books by Magee, such as The Story of Philosophy, Men of Ideas and The Great Philosophers for those interested in investigating philosophy further.
    Report
  • Boson92
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book
    Reviewed in Germany on March 18, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is one of the best books about philosophy and philosophers I've read. Maybe because it is personal it is so good. It's so different from a textbook, because its origins are different. Bryan Magee writes that 'the basic philosophical problems are presented to us by living, not by books or by the education system.'

    His goal is to understand the world, what reality is, and the human condition, and his problems are chiefly connected with the limits of human understanding, as he puts it. The book tells the story of his search. He writes, '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 to what use they were for me.'

    Therefore, his interest in different philosophers is so different than what you usual get to read. I recently watched an interview with a professor of philosophy about Kant and he never mentioned the things that were of primary interest to Magee. 'My attitude towards [the greatest philosophers of there past]', Magee writes, 'is very different from that of a scholar. What Kant scholars are trying to understand, I take it, is Kant; and what Plato scholars are trying to understand is Plato; and so on. In that sense such writers are not objects of ultimate interest to me. What I am trying to understand is the world in which I find myself, and myself. I read the great philosophers because they enlighten me about what I am trying to understand, often giving me insights of enormous depth that I could not have arrived at without them.'

    I could say similar things about Magee's book. I could connect with everything he wrote and it helps me tremendously in my own search. Especially also such chapters as 'Groves of Academe' that you won't find in other philosophy books. And through him I discovered Popper and reconnected with Schopenhauer.

    And finally he writes about the great philosophers, 'They have been among my lifelong companions, and I have personal feelings of gratitude to them for what they meant to me, the difference they have made to my life.' That's kind of what I would like to say to Bryan Magee. Thank you for this book.
    Report
  • Mr. Francois Marcognet
    5.0 out of 5 stars Autobiographie d'un philosophe Popperien
    Reviewed in France on April 19, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Par l'intermédiaire de son autobiographie, Bryan Magee nous fournit un excellent éclairage sur la philosophie occidentale depuis ses origines et plus particulièrement au XXème siècle.
    En effet l'autobiographie intellectuelle de l'auteur nous permet de ressaisir l'importance et l'impact du Cercle de Vienne, de la philosophie de Cambridge, puis de celle d'Oxford. Partant d'interrogations philosophiques générales et surtout épistémologiques, c'est grâce à la lecture et à la fréquentation de Karl Popper qu'il a pu dépasser le positivisme logique, la philosophie analytique , l'héritage de la métaphysique, et mieux tirer profit des contributions de Kant et de Schopenhauer. Ainsi avec l'épistémologie de Popper, il a pu répondre à ses préoccupations existentielles (son angoisse) et philosophiques. Nous retrouvons un contenu philosophique fondamental et une grande expérience humaine, tout en reposant les questions philosophiques essentielles de Kant.
    Report
  • Daniel Hartenstein
    5.0 out of 5 stars The journey of a true friend of wisdom
    Reviewed in Germany on May 6, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is an introduction to (western) philosophy through the author's biography. For the most part of the book this reads very interesting and entertaining. Especially the paragraphs on Kant and Schopenhauer are very lucidly written and make for a good introduction (albeit rather brief) to those philosophers' thought systems.

    However, there are also some (minor) wrinkles:
    1) The chapter on "political philosophy" boils down to Magee's experiences as a politician, some decades ago. Personally, it was rather tedious to read about politicians and agendas from that time; this chapter could have been shorter without any loss to the whole book.

    2) Magee is quite hard on the practice (or method?) and the representatives of so-called ordinary language philosophy. Of course it's perfectly fine to criticise a philosophical position; but at some points Magee seems to exaggerate his critique, bordering on a caricature of the practices of that philosophical "school".

    3) Most importantly, sometimes Magee's strategy for discussing and dismissing a philosophical position is just to state that it's perfectly clear to him that the position is wrong, since he has some kind of clear intuition that it is otherwise. That's basically an argument from self-evidence. However, it normally is rarely as easy and simple to refute a philosophical position using this kind of argument. An example is Magee's dismissal out of hand of philosophy of language and (modern) linguistics. here it seems that Magee just isnt't as competent with regard to theory and data as he is with regard to, say, Schopenhauer and Kant.

    very interesting to read, however, is his struggle for finding meaning in life through philosophy. Personally what I liked most is his stance - somewhat unpopular in some walks of life, I presume - that what makes life worthwhile is leading a scholarly life, being immersed in reading, contemplating, and enjoying the arts (the last one Magee's all-time-favourite).
    Report
  • A. Stutters
    5.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the title put you off! You'll find a feast for thought here.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    If you listened to or watched his broadcast programs you will hear Bryan Magee's voice clear and persuasive as ever in every line of this book. But there is a personal note here that will have escaped your attention. One might even call it a note of anguish.

    I read the book with the same high level of interest and enjoyment as the other reviewers. I was surprised at the Schopenhauer turn the book took. Here Magee made me see how pivotal Kant's declaration of the noumena's unintelligibility was to be for the 'future' of philosophy.

    What I would have loved to hear from him was how Popper criticised his pursuit of the Will in terms of its Essentialism. (A great unexplored seam awaits miners in that area.) Magee seems to suggest that Popper said nothing to discourage him, merely saying he himself had nothing to say. One puzzling aspect of a fine and engrossing book.

    I think this book has a market beyond convinced philosophy nuts. It might well give most people of a certain age, and many much younger, the bug.
    Report