Confessions of a Philosophy Class

Magee had the strong conviction that the empirical world cannot be all there is: After Oxford, Magee took a postgraduate course at Yale. He draws a vivid contrast between the cliquish atmosphere among Oxford philosophers and the broad and generous interest in the whole field of philosophy at Yale. There Magee discovered Kant, and at last he had found a thinker who spoke to his intuition that there was more to philosophy than the dry, narrow and limited fare that was dished out at Oxford.

For it was Kant who explained that there must be a reality the noumenal world beyond the phenomenal world of which we have experience; that the noumenal world is something we cannot ever know because we are forced to perceive the world in terms of the concepts and categories which we have as human beings and which may not correspond at all with what Reality is actually like.

Bertrand Russell in his explanation of Kant famously used the analogy of blue spectacles: The concepts and categories through which we have to experience the world, and which therefore are subjective and not objective, are Time and Space, Cause and Effect, and a number of other such pairs. Kant went further; he demonstrated in ways which cannot be gone into here but whose conclusion was later, by quite different methods, confirmed by Einstein that Time and Space cannot operate in the noumenal world in the way in which we experience them here.

We experience Time as sequential; in the noumenal world there can be no such thing as Past, Present and Future. So here Magee found a philosophy that spoke of the existence of a noumenal world, but one which was for ever hidden from us. In many ways, Schopenhauer says, we see ourselves phenomenally, as material objects mediated by space and time; but as material objects we are unique in knowing ourselves also from the inside.

That experience is direct and intuitive; it is not the result of reasoning or of perceptions mediated by our concepts. It is not sensory at all and cannot be adequately described in sensory terms.

Confessions of a Philosopher | Issue 19 | Philosophy Now

For example, when we hear music or see a work of art, we can give a sensory description in terms of sound or sight signals we receive, but more significant is the nonsensory experience which transports us into a nonsensory realm, gives us a feeling of at-One-ness with something beyond ourselves, i. That discovery was for Magee an enormous enrichment of the way he understood himself and could establish in some way a connection between himself and the noumenon. Almost throughout his life Magee has been haunted by an existentialist Angst , and he records times when this has plunged him into real terror.

He is not religious; he thinks that religious beliefs in any kind of immortality are based on wishful thinking; but he hopes desperately that there might be philosophical grounds for believing in some kind of the survival of the Self. If there is no kind of immortality at all, then life is absurd in the sense in which some of the continental Existentialists used that word. I find that dismissal somewhat cavalier, and indeed at odds with the respect he pays elsewhere to Nietzsche and Heidegger; and I venture to speculate that there is a deeper reason for it.

Confessions of a Philosopher: Bryan Magee on the Importance of Peer Criticism In Learning

Magee must find in those humanist existentialists descriptions of the human condition which he would have to share if indeed there were no such thing as immortality; but, although he tells us that of course a philosopher must not engage in wishful thinking, he is yet not prepared to conclude that life is absurd; he is still hoping that philosophy may break through to produce a convincing argument for some kind of immortality.

Magee says he cannot understand how so many philosophers are content to leave what he himself considers such crucial questions to one side — either because they are not greatly troubled by them or because, even if they were perturbed by them, they consider them unanswerable. Magee confesses that his own temperament does not allow him to leave these questions alone for either of these reasons. His is not a Stoic personality.

Unexpected Lessons in Philosophy, Business and Everyday Life

It is a mistake, I believe, for beginners to think they can get very far by themselves in the study of philosophy. An essential part of the process for beginners is that their sincerely held beliefs — and, much more important than that, their assumptions, which are sometimes uncounscious — should be challenged by people who are as intelligent and well informed as themselves; and they should have to meet those challenges head-on, and deal with them adequately, or else adjust their beliefs and assumptions accordingly, or abandon them altogether.

This cannot happen if they are studying alone, no matter how intensely.

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Alone, they remain too much within the confines of their own limitations. It does not meet the case to say: I know from my own experience, having taught philosophy to above-average students, not only that they all make serious mistakes but that they have a marked tendency to make the same mistakes, so they would reinforce one another in those errors if they had no guidance from someone more experienced not necessarily more intelligent than themselves.

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Later on, when — like trackers who have lived for years in the forest — they have acquired a whole armoury of intellectual skills that can be derived only from experience, they will be in a different situation. Now, Magee is a professional philosopher so this is his eloquent take on studying philosophy itself.

But as a takeaway, the general idea translates nicely to any field of study or profession. Being in a challenging environment with peers and mentors that provide you with guidance is essential to achieving mastery.

For Magee this was a life-changing experience. Just as Magee insists, Greene puts criticism of peers among the most important and rewarding experiences you need to have while learning. Skip to content In Confessions of a Philosopher , an excitingly readable and thought-provoking introduction to philosophy written in a form of an autobiography, Bryan Magee tells us about his personal journey through philosophy, from having insoluble questions in his childhood to illuminating discovery of Kant and Schopenhauer. Stretch Your Mind Subscribe to Nuggets weekly.

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