What was the position of Bryan Magee in Aug 1974?
Bryan Magee Bryan Edgar Magee ( ; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019 ) was a British philosopher , broadcaster , politician and author , best known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience . Early life . Born of working-class parents in Hoxton , London , in 1930 , within a few hundred yards of where his paternal grandparents were born , Magee was brought up in a flat above the family clothes shop , where he shared a bed with his elder sister , Joan . He was close to his father but had a difficult relationship with his abusive and overbearing mother . 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 Christs Hospital school on a London County Council scholarship . 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 . During his National Service he served in the British Army and in the Intelligence Corps 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 . 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 . 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 Rilkes Duino Elegies : .. . das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang , den wir noch grade ertragen ( .. . beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror , that we are still able to bear ) . Magee said later : Im rather ashamed of the poems now , although I have written poems since which I havent published , which I secretly think are rather good . It has always been a dimension of what I do . ( Later he would also publish 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 , would be shortlisted for an award by The Yorkshire Post ) . In 1955 he began a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a postgraduate fellowship . He had expected to hate America but found that he loved it . His deep admiration of the countrys 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 ) . Politician . 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 . He made documentary programmes about subjects of social concern such as prostitution , sexually transmitted diseases , abortion and homosexuality ( illegal in Britain at the time ) . Interviewed in 2003 , Magee said : British society was illiberal in a number of areas that are now taken for granted.. . Roy Jenkins changed them and he was bitterly opposed by the Tories . But if you were liberal with a small L there was a menu of social change and I believed very strongly in that whole liberal agenda . He was eventually elected MP for Leyton at the February 1974 general election , but found himself out of tune with the Labour Partys direction under Michael Foot . 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 . Magee returned to writing and broadcasting which , indeed , he had continued during his parliamentary career and would also serve on various boards and committees . He notably resigned as chairman of the Arts Council music panel in 1994 in protest at funding cuts . He also returned to scholarship at Oxford , first as a fellow at Wolfson , then at New College . He also 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 also inherently sentimental . Interviewed in 2003 , Oxford contemporary William 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 wasnt 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 . Broadcaster and writer . Interviews with philosophers . Magees most important influence in popular culture were his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman . In 1970–71 he presented a series for BBC Radio 3 entitled Conversations with Philosophers . 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 . And extensively revised versions of all the discussions would be made available in the 1971 book Modern British Philosophy . 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 . In 1978 Magee presented 15 dialogues with noted philosophers for BBC Television in a series called Men of Ideas . This was a series that , as noted in The Daily Telegraph , 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 . 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 . Extensively revised versions of the dialogues within the Men of Ideas series ( which featured Iris Murdoch ) were originally published in a book of the same name that is now sold under the title of Talking Philosophy . DVDs of the series are sold to academic institutions with the title Contemporary Philosophy . Neither this series nor its 1987 sequel are available for purchase by home users but most of the episodes are freely available on Youtube . 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 , and ending with a discussion with John Searle on the philosophy of Wittgenstein . Extensively revised versions of the dialogues were published in a book of the same name that was published that same year . Magees 1998 book The Story of Thought ( also published as The Story of Philosophy ) would also cover the history of Western philosophy . 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 ) . This remains one of the most substantial and wide-ranging treatments of the thinker and assesses in-depth Schopenhauers influence on Wittgenstein , Wagner and other creative writers . Magee also addresses Schopenhauers thoughts on homosexuality and the influence of Buddhism on his thought . Later work and interest in Wagner . In 1997 Magees Confessions of a Philosopher was published . 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 philosophers 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 . 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 . In Confessions of a Philosopher , Magee charts his own philosophical development in an autobiographical context . He also emphasizes the importance of Schopenhauers 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 . 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 ) , and The Tristan Chord : Wagner and Philosophy ( 2001 ) . In Aspects of Wagner Magee outlines the range and depth of Wagners achievement , and shows how his sensational and erotic music expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche . He also examines Wagners 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 . In 2016 , approaching his 86th birthday , Magee had his book Ultimate Questions published by Princeton University . Writing in The Independent , Julian Baggini said Magee doesnt 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 . In 2018 Magee , who was then living in one room in a nursing hospital 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 : Popper had this originality , Russell had it , and Einstein had it in spades . Einstein created a way of seeing things which transformed the way we see the world and the way we even understand such fundamental things as time and space . And I fundamentally understand that I could never do that , never . I wish I was in that class – not because I want to be a clever chap but because I want to do things that are at a much better level than Ive done them . He explained that he followed the news and politics closely and that he considered the vote for Brexit to have been a historic mistake . 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 and had one daughter , Gunnela and , in time , three grandchildren . Magee later said : The marriage broke up pretty quickly and it was a fairly disastrous period of my life . I came back to Oxford as a postgraduate . But since then Sweden has been a part of my life . I go there every year and my daughter visits me . I always assumed that sooner or later Id get married again but it never quite happened , although I had some very long relationships . And now I dont want to get married again . I like the freedom . His memoir , Clouds of Glory : A Hoxton Childhood , won the J . R . Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 2004 . Death . Magee died on 26 July 2019 , at the age of 89 , at St Lukes Hospital in Headington , Oxford . He is survived by his Swedish daughter Gunnela and her children and grandchildren . His funeral took place on 15 August . The last of Magees books to be published during his lifetime – Making the Most of It ( 2018 ) – closes : 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 Magees 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 Strausss Capriccio , the largo from Elgars Serenade for Strings and the prelude to Wagners Tristan und Isolde . The addresses by Owen and Callow were published together with a notice of Magees life by Hardy in the Oldie . Filmography . Television . - Men of Ideas ( BBC , 1978 ) , host - Thinking Aloud ( 1984-1985 ) , host - The Great Philosophers ( BBC , 1987 ) , host Bibliography . Books . - Crucifixion and Other Poems , 1951 , Fortune Press , ASIN : B0039UQCKK - Go West , Young Man , Eyre And Spottiswoode , 1958 , - To Live in Danger , Hutchinson , 1960 ( softcover Random House ) - The New Radicalism , Secker & Warburg , 1962 , ASIN B0006D7RZW - The Democratic Revolution , Bodley Head , 1964 , - Towards 2000 : The world we make , Macdonald & Co , 1965 , ASIN B0000CMK0Y - One in Twenty : A Study of Homosexuality in Men and Women , Stein and Day , 1966 . ( later published as The Gays Among Us ) - The Television Interviewer , Macdonald , 1966 , ASIN B0000CN1D4 - Aspects of Wagner , Secker and Warburg , 1968 ; rev . 2nd ed , 1988 , Oxford University Press , 1988 , - Modern British Philosophy , Secker and Warburg , 1971 , ; Oxford University Press , [ Available for loan on Internet Archive ] - Karl Popper , Penguin , 1973 , ( Viking Press , ; also titled Popper , and later titled Philosophy and the Real World , 1985 ) - Facing Death , William Kimber & Co . Ltd. , 1977 , - Men of Ideas : Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy , Oxford University Press , 1978 ( later titled Talking Philosophy : Dialogues With Fifteen Leading Philosophers ) - The Philosophy of Schopenhauer , Oxford University Press , 1983 ( revised and expanded , 1997 ) , - The Great Philosophers : An Introduction to Western Philosophy , BBC Books 1987 , Oxford University Press , 2000 , - On Blindness : Letters between Bryan Magee and Martin Milligan , Oxford University Press , 1996 , ( also published as Sight Unseen , Phoenix House , 1998 , ) - Confessions of a Philosopher , Random House , 1997 , reprinted 1998 , - The Story of Thought : The Essential Guide to the History of Western Philosophy , The Quality Paperback Bookclub , 1998 , ( later titled The Story of Philosophy , 2001 , ) - Wagner and Philosophy , Penguin , 2001 , ( also published as The Tristan Chord : Wagner and Philosophy , Owl Books , 2001 ) - Clouds of Glory , Pimlico , 2004 , - Growing up in a War , Pimlico , 2007 , - Ultimate Questions , Princeton University Press , 2016 , - Making the Most of It , Studio 28 , 2018 , Journal articles . At JSTOR - free to read online with registration : - Richard Wagner Died 13 February 1883 . Producing a New Ring The Musical Times , vol . 124 , no . 1680 , 1983 , pp . 86–89 . [ Interview with Peter Hall ] - Schopenhauer and Professor Hamlyn Philosophy , vol . 60 , no . 233 , 1985 , pp . 389–391 . - A Note on J . L . Austin and the Drama . Philosophy , vol . 74 , no . 287 , 1999 , pp . 119–121 . - What I Believe Philosophy , vol . 77 , no . 301 , 2002 , pp . 407–419. . - Philosophys Neglect of the Arts Philosophy , vol . 80 , no . 313 , 2005 , pp . 413–422 . - The Secret of Tristan and Isolde Philosophy , vol . 82 , no . 320 , 2007 , pp . 339–346 . - Intimations of Mortality Philosophy , vol . 86 , no . 335 , 2011 , pp . 31–39 . External links . Obituaries . - Bryan Magee - Obituary by Henry Hardy for Wolfson College ( 26 July 2019 ) - Bryan Magee , author , broadcaster , MP and academic with an unsurpassed ability to render complex philosophical ideas easily digestible . The Telegraph ( 26 July 2019 ) . - Bryan Magee , Who Brought Philosophy to British TV , Dies at 89 Obituary by Palko Karasz for The New York Times ( 28 July 2019 ) - Bryan Magee : 1930-2019—the champion of philosophical wonderment Obituary by Julian Baggini for Prospect ( 29 July 2019 ) - Obituary : Bryan Magee , MP , presented philosophy programme on Television and Wagner authority The Herald ( 10 August 2019 ) - OBITUARY : Bryan Magee , ex-Oxford Union president and BBC presenter by James Roberts for The Oxford Times ( 15 August 2019 ) - Bryan Magee , philosopher , writer and broadcaster , 1930-2019 by Jonathan Derbyshire for the Financial Times ( 17 August 2019 ) Further resources . - Sense and nonsense Prospect magazine article by Bryan Magee ( 2009 ) - Extracts of Homosexuals ( 1964 ) and Lesbians ( 1965 ) posted on Youtube by the British Film Institute - Photograph of Magee by Sijmen Hendriks , Amsterdam , 2011 - MP3 files of Magees interviews with philosophers - Philosophy : Bryan Magee from Free Thinking , BBC Radio 3 , 2016 - Bryan Magee : a tribute . by David Herman for TheArticle . ( 26 July 2019 )