Bryan Magee

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Template:Short description Template:Similar names Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Bryan Edgar Magee (Template:IPAc-en; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019) was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician, and author, known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience.

Magee influenced popular culture with his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman, especially as a broadcaster on the BBC, interviewing a number of leading philosophers. In parallel, he was interested in politics and was elected as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Leyton parliament constituency in the February 1974 UK general election. He also wrote books, including The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, first published in 1983, and revised in 1997. His interests included the life, thought, and works of the composer Richard Wagner.

Early life

Magee was born in 1930 in Hoxton, London to working-class parents; his father, Frederick Knut (or Canute) Magee (1902-1947) was a clothier's manager, and his mother, Sheila Kathleen (or Catherine; b. 1903) was daughter of labourer Joseph Sidney Lynch. His upbringing was poor; having been born within a few hundred yards of where his paternal grandparents were born, he was brought up in a flat above the family clothing shop, where, until the age of five, he shared a bed with his elder sister, Joan.<ref name=obit/><ref name="ODNB">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> He was close to his father, but had a difficult relationship with his abusive and overbearing mother, who was "cold and distant".<ref name = ODNB/><ref name="guardian.co.uk"/><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> He was evacuated to Market Harborough in Leicestershire, during World War II, but when he returned to London, much of Hoxton had been bombed flat. Magee was educated at Christ's Hospital school on a London County Council scholarship.<ref name = ODNB/> 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.<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

During his National Service, he served in the British Army, in the Intelligence Corps,<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 later became an honorary fellow at Keble College.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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: Template:Lang ("... beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear").<ref>Magee, B. (1951), Crucifixion and Other Poems, London, Fortune Press</ref> 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."<ref name="guardian.co.uk">Template:Cite news</ref> Later he also wrote fiction, including a spy novel To Live in Danger in 1960 and then a long work Facing Death. The latter, initially composed in the 1960s but not published until 1977, was shortlisted for an award by The Yorkshire Post.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1955, he began a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a postgraduate fellowship.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="times" /> He had expected to hate America but found that he loved it. His deep admiration of the country's equality of opportunity was expressed in a swift series of books, Go West, Young Man (1958), The New Radicalism (1963) and The Democratic Revolution (1964).<ref name="times">Template:Cite news</ref> He taught philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford for a period but was not enamoured of the analytic philosophy then in vogue there.<ref name=":1"/>

Politics

Magee returned to Britain 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.<ref name = ODNB/> He made documentary programmes about subjects of social concern such as prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion and homosexuality (illegal in Britain at the time).<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> Interviewed in 2003, Magee said:

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He was eventually elected MP for Leyton at the February 1974 general election. In Making the Most of It, Magee wrote that he decided that the Commons was not suitable for him when he was sitting next to Renee Short, as she constantly interrupted a Conservative to call him a "twit".<ref>Magee (2018), p.404</ref> He resolved not to spend much time on Parliamentary debates, and preferred to make use of the Commons library for his own research and to act efficiently on correspondence from his constituents.<ref>Magee (2018), pp.404-406</ref> He sometimes went out to the theatre on an evening and returned to Parliament in time to vote, having missed the debate.<ref>Magee (2018), p.417</ref>

Magee was on the right of the Labour Party: he opposed nationalisation, nuclear disarmament and friendly relations with the Communist countries.<ref>Magee (2018), pp.299-300</ref> He stated that he "detested" Harold Wilson as devoid of principle,<ref>Magee (2018), p.420</ref> and criticised Callaghan for not understanding the role of negotiations with trade unions.<ref>Magee (2018), p.427</ref> Early in Thatcher's career, Magee had friendly relations with her and the two discussed Karl Popper's philosophy,<ref>Magee (2018), pp.414-424</ref> but he later described her as "limited, narrow, even blinkered".<ref>Magee (2018), p.432</ref> As a member of the Labour Party's Manifesto Group, which advocated unity of all Labour MPs behind the election manifesto, he wrote the pamphlet What We Must Do.<ref>Magee (2018), pp.431-432</ref>

From 1981, Magee found himself out of tune with the Labour Party's direction under Michael Foot, and he decided to leave after he could not bring himself to oppose the Thatcher Government's agenda of curtailing the power of trade unions.<ref>Magee (2018), pp.433-437</ref> On 22 January 1982, he resigned the Labour whip and in March joined the defection of centrist Labour MPs to the newly founded Social Democratic Party. He lost his seat at the 1983 general election.<ref name="classical" />

When asked what he felt he had achieved as an MP, Magee named his work to clear the name of his constituent, David Copper, for the murder of a postmaster, which he believes the police had framed him for.<ref>Magee, 2018, pp.444-447</ref> He contributed to the 1980 book Wicked Beyond Belief, which was published three weeks before David Cooper was released from prison.<ref>Magee, 2018, p. 446</ref>

Magee returned to writing and broadcasting, which, indeed, he had continued during his parliamentary career and served on various boards and committees. He notably resigned as chairman of the Arts Council music panel in 1994 in protest at funding cuts.<ref name="classical" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He returned to scholarship at Oxford, first as a fellow at Wolfson, then at New College.<ref name="times" /> He was from 1984 a senior research fellow in the History of Ideas at King's College London and, from 1994, a visiting professor.<ref name="obit"/> He found more time to write classical music reviews and worked on his own compositions. He admitted that, while his own work was "whistleable", it was "inherently sentimental".<ref name="times"/>

Interviewed in 2003, Oxford contemporary Lord Rees-Mogg recalled, "we never knew which way Bryan would jump. And as his life later demonstrated, there was always a question of whether he was basically at heart an intellectual or someone interested in public life. So it wasn't a surprise that he went into public life, but the intellectual was really the predominant element in his personality, and the books seemed to represent the real Bryan more than the political activity did."<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/>

Broadcaster and writer

Interviews with philosophers

An important influence in popular culture was his effort to make philosophy accessible to the layman. In 1970–1971, he presented a series for BBC Radio 3 entitled Conversations with Philosophers.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="guardian.co.uk" /> The series took the form of Magee in conversation with a number of contemporary British philosophers, discussing both their own work, and the work of earlier 20th-century British philosophers. The series began with an introductory conversation between Magee and Anthony Quinton. Other programmes included discussions on Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore and J. L. Austin, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the relationship between philosophy and religion, among others. Extracts of each of the conversations were printed in The Listener shortly after broadcast.<ref>Modes of philosophizing – A round table debate (with Jonathan Barnes, Myles Burnyeat, Raymond Geuss and Barry Stroud).9 May 2008 Eurozine</ref> And extensively revised versions of all the discussions would be made available in the 1971 book Modern British Philosophy.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref> Karl Popper would appear in the series twice and Magee would soon after write an introductory book on his philosophy that was first published in 1973.<ref>Bibliography Karl R. Popper 2.1 Writings on Karl Popper and His Work (Current state: June 2019) University of Klagenfurt (AAU)</ref>

In 1978, Magee presented 15 dialogues with noted philosophers for BBC Television in a series called Men of Ideas.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> As The Daily Telegraph noted, this series "achieved the near-impossible feat of presenting to a mass audience recondite issues of philosophy without compromising intellectual integrity or losing ratings" and "attracted a steady one million viewers per show."<ref name="obit" /> 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 Noam Chomsky, and modern Existentialism in subsequent episodes. During the broadcast run, edited shorter versions of the discussions were published weekly in The Listener magazine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Extensively revised versions of the dialogues within the Men of Ideas series (which featured Iris Murdoch)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> were originally published in a book of the same name<ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref> that is now sold under the title of Talking Philosophy.<ref name=":2" /> DVDs of the series are sold to academic institutions with the title Contemporary Philosophy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Neither this series nor its 1987 'sequel' are available for purchase by home users but most of the episodes are freely available on YouTube.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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, including a discussion with Peter Singer on the philosophy of Marx and Hegel,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and ending with a discussion with John Searle on the philosophy of Wittgenstein.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Extensively revised versions of the dialogues were published in a book of the same name that was published that same year.<ref name=":7"> Template:Cite book</ref> The series was repeated on BBC Four in October and November 2025, and also made available on iPlayer. Magee's 1998 book The Story of Thought (also published as The Story of Philosophy) would also cover the history of Western philosophy.<ref name="times" />

Between the two series, Magee released the first edition of the work he regarded as closest to his "academic magnum opus": The Philosophy of Schopenhauer (first published in 1983, substantially revised and extended, 1997).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This remains one of the most substantial and wide-ranging treatments of the thinker and assesses in-depth Schopenhauer's influence on Wittgenstein, Wagner, and other creative writers. Magee also addresses Schopenhauer's thoughts on homosexuality and the influence of Buddhism on his thought.<ref name=":0" />

Later work and interest in Wagner

In 1997, Magee's Confessions of a Philosopher was published.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":8">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Magee had a particular interest in the life, thought, and music of Richard Wagner and wrote two notable books on the composer and his world, Aspects of Wagner (1968; rev. 1988),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Wagner and Philosophy (2000).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In Aspects of Wagner Magee "outlines the range and depth of Wagner's achievement, and shows how his sensational and erotic music expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche. He also examines Wagner's detailed stage directions, and the prose works in which he formulated his ideas, and sheds interesting new light on his anti-semitism." The revised edition includes a fresh chapter on "Wagner as Music".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2016, approaching his 86th birthday, Magee had 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2018, Magee, then living in one room in a nursing home in Oxford, was interviewed by Jason Cowley of New Statesman and discussed his life and his 2016 book Ultimate Questions. Magee said that he believed he lacked originality and, until Ultimate Questions, had struggled to make an original contribution to philosophy, saying:

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He went on to discuss his continuing interest in politics and current affairs and to describe the Brexit yes vote as a "historic mistake".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

In 1953, Magee was appointed to a teaching job in Sweden and while there met Ingrid Söderlund, a pharmacist in the university laboratory. They married the following year and had one daughter, Gunnela, and, in time, three grandchildren.<ref name = ODNB/> Magee said in 2003:

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His memoir, Clouds of Glory: A Hoxton Childhood, won The Ackerley Prize in 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

Magee died on 26 July 2019, at the age of 89, at St Luke's Hospital in Headington, Oxford, the care home in which he had spent his final years.<ref name = ODNB/><ref name=":1" /> His funeral took place on 15 August.<ref name=":9" /><ref>Bryan Edgar Magee 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019Template:Dead link (funeral service sheet)</ref>

The last of Magee's books to be published during his lifetime – Making the Most of It (2018) – closes:<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":9">Template:Cite web</ref>

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A celebration of his life was held in the chapel of Keble College, Oxford, on 29 October 2019. The event was opened by Sir Jonathan Phillips, Warden of Keble College, and was introduced by Magee's executor, the academic, author, and editor Henry Hardy. It included audio and video clips of Magee, music chosen by him and played by the Amherst Sextet, and addresses by David Owen and Simon Callow. The music choices were the sextet from Strauss's Capriccio, the largo from Elgar's Serenade for Strings and the prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> The addresses by Owen and Callow were published together with a notice of Magee's life by Hardy in the Oldie.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Television

Bibliography

Books

(Some available for loan via Internet Archive)

Journal articles

At JSTOR – free to read online with registration:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other written works

References

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Further reading

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Obituaries

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