Customer Reviews

Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy (Oxford Paperbacks)

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This book is based on conversations - interviews that Magee conducted for a BBC series . In it he tries to introduce philosophical problems and ideas to a wider audience. The written text of the book was based on the transcripts of the talks. But these were worked on considerably both by Magee and those he interviewed. The effort was to make as readable a text as possible and to eliminate the repetitions, the paraphanelia of speech. He opens the dialogues with a talk with Sir Isaiah Berlin on the question of why anyone should take an interest in Philosophy. Berlin talks about the way we all live with assumptions which when questioned philosophically undermine our security. And he indicates that as one possible reason why so many avoid philosophy. On the other hand he says when there is no questioning when all is taken as it is , the mind and imagination dry up. In these lectures Magee does not allow the mind and imagination to dry up. He engages in dialogue with many of the most prominent philosophers of our time beginning with Berlin, and then Charles Taylor, Herbert Marcuse, William Barrett, Anthony Quinton, A.J. Ayer, Bernard Williams, R.M. Hare, W.V. Quine, John Searle, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Putnam, Ronald Dworkin, Iris Murdoch, Ernest Gellner. He tries to be inclusive in these talks and have representatives of all the major schools of philosophy, and representatives of all the major areas. To my mind there is an over- representation of the analystic and positivistic type of thinker, but this is perhaps indicative of the character of philosophy today.

This is a very good introduction to basic problems of philosophy.

Parenthetically, the fact that this review is the first of the book posted on 'Amazon' would seem to me a small piece of evidence in support of Berlin's thesis that the mass of mankind would rather not have their own assumptions question and their own beliefs tested.