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Talking Philosophy: Dialogues with Fifteen Leading Philosophers

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This book is the transcript of Bryan Magee's BBC Television series where he interviews various modern thinkers about their philosophies. 15 of the interviews are included in this book. Many outstanding people are here, including Noam Chomsky, John Searle, W.V. Quine, Herbert Marcuse, William Barrett, and Ronald Dworkin. Subjects covered include Marxism, Heidegger/Existentialism, linguistics (Chomsky, Searle, Bernard Williams, and Anthony Quinton talking about Wittgenstien) as well as science, politics and literature. This book makes some very complicated ideas accessable and is quite easy to read. Very enjoyable.

This book presents Bryan Magee's brilliant interviews of leading philosophers for the BBC in 1978. Hereafter some very brief summaries and very few comments (MHO).

Isaiah Berlin: philosophy's task is to examine and criticize and bring clarification, not to give definite answers.

Charles Taylor: Marxism says nothing on the individual or the cosmic level, only on the social level. There is an internal contradiction between Marxism's inexorable laws and its use as a theory of liberation.

Herbert Marcuse: comments on the Frankfurt School and its linking of Freudianism and Marxism, as well as politics and economic power.

William Barret (on Existentialism): Heidegger gives a descriptive analysis of our being in the world: What is it to exist?
(MHO: Heidegger poses the wrong question: what is? Not, what does?)
Sartre confronts freedom and responsibility.

Anthony Quinton (on Wittgenstein): he explains the 2 Wittgensteins:
1. language is a picture of the world
2. language is a social tool

A.J. Ayer (on Logical Positivism): any statement that is not a formal one, or empirical testable (verifiability), is nonsensical. But the most important of LP's defects is that nearly all of it is false.

Bernard Williams (on Linguistic Philosophy): Understanding what a word means is nothing more or less than knowing how to use it. LP is a tool for the investigation of this use.

R.M. Hare (on Moral Philosophy): The most central of moral concepts is what we ought to do. `As you wish that men should do to you, do to them likewise.'

W. van Orman Quine : Philosophy is a part of science. Processes (like emotions) in physical objects (people) are always accompanied by microphysical changes. In fact, they are those changes. Neurology is ultimately the place for explanations.
(MHO: abstract numbers don't exist in reality. They are only characteristics of physical processes.)

J. Searle on the Philosophy of Language): Our concept of reality is a matter of our linguistic categories. The purpose of language is communication.

N. Chomsky: Human beings are biologically preprogrammed for the use of language and must all have in common a basic structure that corresponds to the preprogramming.

H. Putnam (on the Philosophy of Science): `test your ideas' and `remember that your ideas are corrigible'.

R. Dworkin (Philosophy and Politics):
on J. Rawls (A theory of Justice):
1. there are certain liberties that must be protected
2. every change in the social structure should benefit the worst-off group.
on R. Nozick (Anarchy, State and Utopia): individuals have rights not to have their persons injured or their liberties limited or their property taken without their consent.

Iris Murdoch (Philosophy and Literature): A philosopher must try to explain exactly what he means, use an unambiguous candid style. Philosophy and literature are both truth-seeking and truth-revealing activities.

Ernest Gellner: Knowledge is central to life. The task ahead is bring together the cognitive and the social restraints

This book is a must read for all those interested in philosophy. It is written in an extremely clear, comprehensive and unambiguous language, a major plus for that kind of work.

I've only read three chapters, which I've enjoyed. The Barrett dialogue on Heidegger and existentialism prompted me to buy the book. I thoroughly enjoyed that dialogue--that one alone made the book worth buying. I also read the dialogues on philosophy in general with Isaiah Berlin and philosophy of science with Hilary Putnam--both of them very good. I'm not that interested in linguistics or Marxism, but the book includes other interesting topics in philosophy.

My main complaint with the book is the tiny print, making it hard to read. In addition, the binding is rather stiff.

I am a philosophy graduate and this is the best book I read in popular philosophy. Most of the chapters are accessible to a general audience but I think it would overwhelm those totally new to the subject. Magee frequently recaputilates the ideas presented by the philosophers in a simple way and asks whether his account is accurate or not. That really helps to keep track of some more complex parts of the book. I'd recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in philosophy.

Every chapter gives an excellent introduction to philosophical subjects, moral, political, language, etc. Questions and answers are presented in a very clear and understandable language with everyday examples. Highly recommended for the novice. An armchair philosopher.