Confessions of a Philosopher
A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper
By Bryan Magee
About the book
Bryan Magee's memoir traces his own discovery of philosophy, treating its basic questions as problems about reality that arise in everyday life rather than puzzles set by philosophers' writings. Because the narrative follows his life, thinkers appear in the order he came across them, not in historical sequence. The ground covered runs from the pre-Socratics through Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein to the twentieth century, along with movements such as empiricism, existentialism, rationalism and utilitarianism. Magee knew two leading modern figures, Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper, personally, and he is also the author of an introductory history, The Story of Philosophy.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb said Magee writes from the inside, showing his own formation as a thinker, and valued his first-hand account of Popper, whom few people read directly.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Flaneur)
This is not a polularization /adult-education style presentation. Magee sees things form the inside; it is his own formation of philosophical ideas & techniques that we witness.
Magee was close enough to Popper to present us with his ideas first-hand (nobody reads Popper; people read about him). He also debunks a few idiotic myths about Wittgenstein as an atomist (Magee read W and realized that people read commentary on him rarely the original).
Magee writes with the remarkable clarity of the English philosophers/thinkers.
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