Men of Ideas

The first episode, "Introduction to Philosophy", saw Magee in discussion with Isaiah Berlin. In subsequent episodes Magee discussed such topics as Marxist philosophy, the Frankfurt School, and modern Existentialism.

During the broadcast run, edited shorter versions of the discussions were published in The Listener magazine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/01/whatever-happened-public-intellectual|title=Whatever happened to the public intellectual?|website=www.newstatesman.com|date=31 January 2017 |language=en|access-date=2019-08-18}} Extensively revised versions of the dialogues within the Men of Ideas series were published in a 1979 book of the same name,{{Cite journal|last=Snelgrove|first=David|date=1980|title=Review of Men of Ideas|journal=Journal of Thought|volume=15|issue=1|pages=103–104|issn=0022-5231|jstor=42590182}} now published under the title Talking Philosophy.{{Cite book|title=Talking philosophy : dialogues with fifteen leading philosophers|last=Magee, Bryan.|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Magee, Bryan.|isbn=0192854178|location=Oxford|pages=|oclc=47676350}} DVDs of the series are sold to academic institutions with the title Contemporary Philosophy.{{Cite web |url=http://films.com/title/7302|title=Contemporary Philosophy|website=Films Media Group|language=en|access-date=2019-08-01}}

Noting that the series "attracted a steady one million viewers per show", The Daily Telegraph hailed the series, and its 1987 'sequel', for achieving "the near-impossible feat of presenting to a mass audience recondite issues of philosophy without compromising intellectual integrity or losing ratings."{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/07/26/bryan-magee-author-broadcaster-academic-unsurpassed-ability/|title=Bryan Magee, author, broadcaster, MP and academic with an unsurpassed ability to render complex philosophical ideas easily digestible – obituary|date=2019-07-26|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2019-09-09|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}

Neither this series nor The Great Philosophers, a similar BBC television series presented by Magee in 1987, are available for purchase by home users. Since March 2023, however, all episodes have been made freely available on YouTube.{{Cite web |date=2023-03-28 |title=Bryan Magee Interviews - Modern Philosophy: Men of Ideas (1977-1978) |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP9EhPApKE9Wx2lorEbG_e6UZJgEW9Vx |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=YouTube |language=en-US}} The theme played over the opening credits comes from the overture to Gabriel Fauré's Masques et Bergamasques.

1. "An Introduction to Philosophy", with Isaiah Berlin
2. "Marxist Philosophy", with Charles Taylor
3. "Marcuse and the Frankfurt School", with Herbert Marcuse
4. "Martin Heidegger and Modern Existentialism", with William Barrett
5. "The Two Philosophies of Wittgenstein", with Anthony Quinton
6. "Logical Positivism and its Legacy", with A. J. Ayer
7. "The Spell of Linguistic Philosophy", with Bernard Williams
8. "Moral Philosophy", with R. M. Hare
9. "The Ideas of Quine", with Willard Van Orman Quine
10. "The Philosophy of Language", with John Searle
11. "The Ideas of Chomsky", with Noam Chomsky
12. "The Philosophy of Science", with Hilary Putnam
13. "Philosophy and Politics", with Ronald Dworkin
14. "Philosophy and Literature", with Iris Murdoch
15. "Philosophy: The Social Context", with Ernest Gellner

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|tt1046679}}
• [https://philosophyring.neocities.org/Magee.html MP3 files of interviews]
• [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP9EhPApKE9Wx2lorEbG_e6UZJgEW9Vx The complete series on YouTube, via the channel Philosophy Overdose]

Category:1978 British television series debuts

Category:BBC Two original programming

Category:1970s British television series

Category:1978 British television series endings

Category:Philosophy television series