As part of our monthly Philosophy in the Bookshop series of events, We will be hosting a special celebration of the life and work of Philosopher Bryan Magee who passed away on Friday 26th July. Host Nigel Warburton will chair a panel of guest speakers as we remember this very important and influential philosopher. Our panel includes Angie Hobbs, Henry Hardy and Timothy Williamson.

Bryan Magee, who has died aged 89, was hardly a typical member of the political class of the late 20th century. A polymath and a compulsive communicator, he was a bestselling author (with more than 20 books to his name), an award-winning broadcaster and “telly don”, a philosopher, authority on Richard Wagner and for a decade an MP, for Labour and the SDP.

In 1978 he presented a 15-part series for the BBC, Men of Ideas, in which he interviewed contemporary philosophers about their work, including Isaiah Berlin, AJ Ayer, Noam Chomsky and Iris Murdoch, and won a Royal Television Society award. He followed this a decade later with The Great Philosophers (1987), also for BBC2, featuring him in conversation with major scholars about historical figures in western philosophy from Plato to Wittgenstein. Transcripts of both series were published in book form.

Magee regarded philosophy, because it tackled questions about the purpose of life, as the most important subject. He also wanted to rescue it from the excessive professionalism of academia and the barren approaches of logical positivism and linguistic analysis. His book Modern British Philosophy (1971) was based on his BBC Radio 3 series Conversations with Philosophers (1970-71); The Story of Philosophy (1998) covered the ideas of philosophers over 2,500 years; and his Confessions of a Philosopher (1997) was a successful mix of autobiography and analysis. As a popular writer on philosophy, he had a gift for making complex ideas accessible and interesting to the general reader; his many books and television programmes were never exercises in dumbing down.

(From The Guardian, Friday 26th July. Dennis Kavanagh)

Photo credit: Eamonn McCabe

This event is free to attend and takes place in the Philosophy department. Register here to confirm your attendance. Please note that there is limited access and seating in this area. Please call 01865 666623 for further details.