Confessions of a Philosopher

Are you interested in philosophy and you do not know how and where to begin? There is a book I can recommend you. It is Bryan Magee’s Confessions of a Philosopher published in 1999. Given the fact that the name of the book refers to classical books on the field of philosophy - St. Augustine’s or Rousseau’s Confessions -, the name of Magee’s book might sound conceited a bit. Although it surely does not match the former’s ingenuity or the latter’s innovative character, it is still a book worth reading.

Magee’s book is a very good choice for anyone willing to penetrate the field of philosophy. It can introduce readers in the philosophical way of asking questions and it can offer some basic insights in the works of major Western philosophers beginning with pre-Socratics and ending with twentieth-century philosophy.

The biggest weakness of the book is its unbalanced focus. There are two chapters devoted to Schopenhauer, one lengthy chapter dedicated to a thoroughgoing discussion of Kant’s philosophy and one chapter is reserved for Karl Popper, but there are only two pages and some scattered remarks dedicated to Hegel. Comparably little space is reserved for other movements like empiricism, German idealism, existentialism or pragmatism. On the other hand, understanding Kant is immensely helpful even for understanding non- and anti-Kantian currents within philosophy.

The strong point of the book is its discussion of analytic philosophy. Author himself started his career as a student at Oxford in the nineteen-fifties, which was at the time a stronghold of OLP - an offshoot of analytic philosophy. Magee thus offers his audience not only a discussion of some crucial philosophical issues but also conveys his readership vivid descriptions of his philosophical upbringing, personal impressions of other philosophers, funny stories and insights into power struggles between and within various departments of philosophy. My personal favorite is a joke about Gilbert Ryle, who “was a person of life-enhancing intellectual brilliance, but he had no inner life worth speaking of.”

The focus on analytic philosophy is the strongest as well as the weakest part of the book. There is virtually no discussion of so called continental philosophy represented by post-structuralism, postmodernism or hermeneutics (Foucault, Derrida, Gadamer or Ricoeur are not even mentioned). A reader who is expecting an introduction into main currents within philosophy might thus feel rightly betrayed. The only exceptions are French existentialism and German neo-Marxism.

“The notion that only those who have studied philosophy at a university can philosophize is on a par with the notion that only those who have made an academic study of literature can read a classic novel.”

Magee’s book is not only an interesting piece as an introduction to philosophy. The books itself is an important contribution to contemporary discussions about the role of university education. In the times of declining university education Magee poses a challenge (or a threat?) to all those who think that to become a professional philosopher, one should pursue a university degree and a subsequent academic career. Locke, Leibniz or Nietzsche were not professional academics, yet their writings are essential contributions to philosophy. Can the same be said of other disciplines “cultivated” in the groves of academia?


MAGEE, Bryan: Confessions of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper. New York, Modern Library, 1999.