Bryan Edgar Magee (/məˈɡiː/; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019) was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician and author, best known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience.

[4][6] During his National Service he served in the British Army, in the Intelligence Corps,[4] seeking possible spies among the refugees crossing the border between Yugoslavia and Austria.

The slim volume was dedicated to the memory of Richard Wagner, with a quote from Rilke's 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").

His deep admiration of the country's 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).

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.

[3] He made documentary programmes about subjects of social concern such as prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion and homosexuality (illegal in Britain at the time).

[4] 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.

In Making the Most of It, Magee wrote that he decided that the Commons was not suitable for him when he was sitting next to Renee Short, as she constantly interrupted a Conservative to call him a "twit".

[14] He resolved not to spend much time on Parliamentary debates, and preferred to make use of the Commons library for his own research and to act efficiently on correspondence from his constituents.

[19] Early in Thatcher's career, Magee had friendly relations with her and the two discussed Karl Popper's philosophy,[20] but he later described her as "limited, narrow, even blinkered".

[22] From 1981, Magee found himself out of tune with the Labour Party's direction under Michael Foot, and he decided to leave after he could not bring himself to oppose the Thatcher Government's agenda of curtailing the power of trade unions.

So it wasn't 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.

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.

[31] Extensively revised versions of the dialogues within the Men of Ideas series (which featured Iris Murdoch)[32] were originally published in a book of the same name[33] that is now sold under the title of Talking Philosophy.

[12] 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).

Writing in The Independent, Julian Baggini said "Magee doesn't 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'.

"[52] In 2018 Magee, then living in one room in a nursing home in Oxford, was interviewed by Jason Cowley of New Statesman and discussed his life and his 2016 book Ultimate Questions.

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 I've done them.He went on to discuss his continuing interest in politics and current affairs and to describe the Brexit yes vote as a "historic mistake".

[55] Magee died on 26 July 2019, at the age of 89, at St Luke's Hospital in Headington, Oxford, the care home in which he had spent his final years.

[56][57] The last of Magee's books to be published during his lifetime – Making the Most of It (2018) – closes:[58][56] If it could be revealed to me for certain that life is meaningless, and that my lot when I die will be timeless oblivion, and I were then asked: "Knowing these things, would you, if given the choice, still choose to have been born?

It is terrible and terrifying to have to die, but even the prospect of eternal annihilation is a price worth paying for being alive.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 Magee's 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 Strauss's Capriccio, the largo from Elgar's Serenade for Strings and the prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.