Life Writing and Philosophy: Bryan Magee and the Subjectivities of the Examined Life

ABSTRACT

An independent man of letters in an era of professional philosophers, Bryan Magee wrote extensively about the personal origins of his philosophic interests and activities. The emotions and subjectivities of his early years helped shape a polymath whose deep absorption in culture and compulsive need to communicate created a unique figure in modern Britain. This article analyses Magee’s personal narratives of both isolation and connection. It shows why and how he brought philosophers to a larger audience and a new public to philosophy.

KEYWORDS:

• Bryan Magee
• Confessions
• philosophy
• emotions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

D. L. LeMahieu is the Hotchkiss Presidential Professor of History at Lake Forest College.