Isaiah Berlin interview on Why Philosophy Matters (1976)
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- Bryan Magee-world-renowned author and professor-and Sir Isaiah Berlin, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and biographer of Karl Marx, answer fundamental questions such as "What is philosophy?" "Why does it matter?" and "Why should anybody be interested in it today?"
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This is from the series Modern Philosophy.
Watch the other episodes here:
Introduction to Philosophy with Isaiah Berlin: • Isaiah Berlin intervie...
Herbert Marcuse interview: • Herbert Marcuse interv...
Heidegger and Existentialism: • Heidegger and Existent...
Wittgenstein's Philosophy: • The Philosophy of Witt...
Logical Positivism: • Logical Positivism wit...
Linguistic Philosophy: • Linguistic Philosophy ...
Willard Van Orman Quine interview: • Willard Van Orman Quin...
Philosophy of Language with John Searle: • John Searle interview ...
Noam Chomsky interview: • Noam Chomsky interview...
Philosophy of Science: • The Philosophy of Scie...
Philosophy and Politics: • Philosophy and Politic...
Philosophy and Literature with Iris Murdoch: • Philosophy and Literat...
The Social Context of Philosophy: • The Social Context of ...
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There is only one: Continued Universal Human Cluelessness (see the Philosophy of Broader Survival for the 'illumination').
Incredible that programs like this were broadcast on national television. A time when the viewing public were not assumed to be cretins.
There's loads of conversations like this on huge CZcams channels followed by millions of people. Check out the discussions about consciousness with figures like Roger Penrose, Karl Friston. In Our Time by Melvyn Bragg also is a condensed version of this format which is on BBC Iplayer. The 1970's were not some kind of peak of civilisation.
@@theboogie_monsta Of course. He is merely pointing out the decay of the old media. Much of the intellectual discussion has moved to the internet nowadays, and traditional media outlets struggle to compete in this environment without some form of adaptation.
TV these days looks like the teletubbies
We all should think the same
@@lucasdarianschwendlervieir3714 I was being reactive. There is definitely something lost from the older interview style - for instance, the video of Heidegger and the Buddhist Monk, or Chomsky and Foucault, etc etc. I associate this more with the culture of management and anti-intensity which has arisen, rather than the medium per se.
I grew up with the internet, so don't think of TV as significant. I've taken its decay for granted. In the music industry, there's a similar complaint from older people who were used to the simpler market of the 20th century, and find the galaxy of possible artists to be overwhelming / assume that there is nothing worth investigating. Usually I don't bother, but I must have been tired.
This was broadcast at about 1130pm on a weekday night before closedown; very few people actually watched it. One look at the BBC Genome database for this period should very quickly disabuse you of the notion that 1970’s Britain was a hotbed of mainstream philosophical enquiry.
The fact that you should uncritically succumb to such a fanciful notion of the past on the basis of a single television programme suggests that you need a lot more philosophy in your life than you’re currently getting.
Try Kierkegaard, Heidegger and, latterly, Frederic Jameson if you want to get to grips with the phenomenology of nostalgia.
Bryan Magee is a perfect interviewer for philosophers
He truly goes beyond interviewing, it's also an active drawing out of the philosophical curiosity and vitality, to then weave mutually vitalizing conversations, curiously interesting to ever so many more than just them two - thankfully.
Perhaps the perfect interviewer, and much missed
RIP, Mr. Magee died on July 26, 2019.
Oh RIP, Mr. Magee did some amazing programs. I wish we had more teachers like them today!
his candles went out and plunged him into pitch blackness. hopefully his curiosity overcame his fear of death. RIP Mr. Magee. We shall be in the same state of ignorance and uncertainty as we have always been in.
The last of Magee's books to be published during his lifetime - Making the Most of It (2018) - closes thus:
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?”, my answer would be a shouted “Yes!” I have loved living. Even if the worst-case scenario is the true one, what I have had has been infinitely better than nothing. In spite of what has been wrong with my life, and in spite of what has been wrong with me, I am inexpressibly grateful to have lived. It is terrible and terrifying to have to die, but even the prospect of eternal annihilation is a price worth paying for being alive.
Zora Shoes he remained convinced till the end that long form philosophical programming was still viable and could draw a broad enough audience if done well
Zora Shoes I’ve just dropped a little tribute to Bryan on my channel - he would have been 90 today.
Bryan Magee changed my life in a very profound way, may he rest in peace
That’s lovely to hear.
Me too! I applied to university to study philosophy because of his "Great Philosophers" series.
In a very sexual way - I might add.
Isaiah Berlin's humor is dry but it still makes me laugh. Love his stuff.
I feel like I didn't actually waste time on youtube after watching this.
I dumped TV some years ago and got a life but can still find much of the quality stuff on YT. I just hope our kids do. 🌈🦉
Ishiah was one of the outstanding philosophers of the world 👍🌸
This is amazing. That's very much for the upload!
Recommendation: Bryan Magee's "Confessions of a Philosopher". Essentially his intellectual biography. There is an absorbing chapter on Sir Karl Popper.
33:30 Berlin, through the example of Turgenev, describes the moral philosopher in almost the same way a good lawyer should be described: one who analyzes the issues well enough to clarify, and hopefully crystalize, the available choices and present them to the client in language that the client can understand and act on.
In the case of the moral philosopher, the "client" is the whoever is listening.
I find this remark intriguing. Can you point me to book/videos/article which can show how lawyers do this
Playback speed 0.75 makes Mr. Berlin much easier to grasp, imo.
Thank you so much for uploading these fantastic interviews with philosophers from the 70s! My, my, my, sometimes the idiot box was actually educational after all back in the day...
I've been looking for this interview for ages. Thank you so much for uploading it!
Me too. Happy to find it again
Magee was only 46 years old when this was taped! Hard life the one of a philosopher, hard life.
It's excellent that we can see these outstanding programmes again after many years (or for the first time of course), and surely this is an important justification for U-tube, if it needs one. (UK)
There is so much good TV from the 70s that has now been uploaded to CZcams. I would recommend literally anything you can find of the C-Span archives.
It always amazes me how good TV can be when you turn off the music, don't rush and don't assume that your audience will get bored in two seconds.
Thank you, Bryan. You will be missed. RIP.
RIP Bryan Magee 😢
23:16 What a satisfying exchange!
Such a brilliant conversation. Thankyou
Brilliant content. Thanks for uploading.
This is an outstanding interview! Briliant interaction and so rewarding intellectually...
All these interviews and talks about philosophy are fantastic source of inspiration
I love Isaiah Berlin's eloquent explanation of Common Sense; Truth, Justice and logic ( metaphysics). How to use science to solve problems. Thank you very much.
Bryan Magee is a national British treasure.
imagine if Bryan Magee was being kept in a museum in Nigeria and they wouldn't give him back :(
Thank you for sharing this stuff. It's amazing.
Thank you for a great interview; questions on morality beginning at an early age when encouraged. Isaiah Berlin, one of our timely philosophers thankful.
Now the two friends can finally catch up on some long years of conversations. RIP Magee.
Two of my intellectual heroes having a conversation. Thank you for uploading this !
Wonderful. Bryan thought Isaiah was one of the two greatest essayists in the English language in the 20th century.
@@VladVexler Thank you for your response. Out of curiosity, who did he pair him up with in first place ?
@@d.mavridopoulos66 George Orwell. I may do a little episode on my channel about Bryan and Isaiah's friendship - at the moment there are little clips about Isaiah and Bryan separately. I never met Isaiah personally, though I am slowly writing a book on him. Bryan I had conversations with in the last few years of his life.
@@VladVexler I know some of Berlin's talks which are terrific and inimitable. Which of his essays would you recommend ? I admire the ones he did on Churchill and Roosevelt. I think Perry Anderson's written that his best book is the one on Russian thinkers.
A wonderful interview. Magee was a great presenter/interlocutor.
Wonderful, quite clear, interview. Great demonstration of why philosophy matters. The date is mistaken. According to, e.g. the Guardian obituary of Magee, the series was broadcast in 1978.
Greetings from East Anglia in England.
Excellent upload! Many thanks. It demonstrates the great benefits that public (-spirited (this may have been on ITV?)) television can offer a wider audience. It should alert us all to the damage that the present government may inflict with its pernicious assault on the BBC.
34:15 Turgenev "One of the troubles of the 19th century Russian reader is that they want to be told how to live, they want to be quite clear about who are the heroes and who are the villains" - has that changed? Are we all like this? Are there different proportions of people in different countries like this? Does it change over time?
Against the Current by Berlin is a vastly profound work. The introduction by Mark Lilla is itself the best intro to a book I've ever read. The heart races. . U must read it in doses . . And with a Clear Conscience
Bryan Magee. What a great man!
Capt ανδρεία Andreia Al sexy isn’t he?
Thank you... Bryan... Thank you Bryan... Philosophy...
Thank you Isaiah .
An admirable man, Master
fantastic ! it is like attending a seminar-workshop in philosophy. Dr. Berlin is so illuminating.
Completely agree, questions unanswered not a detraction from philosophy to improve the quality of one's reasoning, properly clarify and sort one's thoughts.
How come nobody is speaking over the other. How come they are quietly listening to each other. And why do they mostly agree with each other. And what's most horrible is that they seem to greatly respect each other. As a citizen of the largest democracy in the world I find this to be completely undemocratic.
the civility from the past is much more robust than that of the present
Isaiah Berlin is my idol. I adore this man and his writing. Thank you very much!
What would you say Isaiah gave you?
Thank you.
More Berlin please :). He writes extraordinarily well for those have to pick him up. PS - A visitor of the Kennedy White House and dinner guest for conversation well into the late evening...
A man of great intellect and speedy speech
He seems to have had six cups of coffee before each interview
Wonderful stuff.
Philosophy will always be the most interesting and important human endeavor.
Did this man ever write an introductory book to philosophy? He is crystal clear and makes me inspired to learn the basics of formal and moral and empirical, etc.
alas he didnt
Isaiah's voice: THE voice
23:20 "This posing of a question without any answer is the hallmark of a philosophical question."
W. E. B. Dubois, the famous black leader and writer, while not commenting directly on philosophy, did say that his people need a "Talented Tenth" to lead them from the chains of slavery to freedom and how to handle it.
I am convinced that most people get their ideas second hand (that is when we delve into the field of ideas at all) and are more than willing to be lead by what "seems" right and correct by those they trust, perhaps by empiricism, "common sense" and the little they do read and listen.
William Safire called this "secondary orality" and I think whether we like it or not, this is the path the world will continue to take.
Certainly this leads to confusion, and politics, whether democratic or not suffers from such comprehension.
I would say, that the more individual freedom is venerated and the use of religion and statecraft to force certain ideas is limited, the safer we are to decide for ourselves proper values and intellectual avenues.
?
web du bois , great man
Cool name and great voice
Thanks for posting. I'm trying to get through "The Open Society and Its Enemies" by Christmas.
Go online into Amazon and order "Popper" by Bryan Magee in the Fontana series. Just a thin paperback but absolutely brilliant in explaining the philosophy of Karl Popper to the interested layman. Best wishes, Grumpy.
What an abhorrent piece of scholarship
@@doublenegation7870 Although I rather enjoyed his lectures on aesthetics, I could really only endorse Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit as a sleeping aid. Schopenhauer's critique of him is basically correct.
Two brilliant men.
At 8,32 Magee says,,,can you give an example of a moral philosophical question, Berlin replies,,,let me tell you a story, What a story,,,like a story by Tolstoy or a parable by Kafka,
Morality is an satanic delusion
Bryan Magee was a great tv person.
A joy.
Thnks a lot for this uploads! where can i find Charles Taylor on "Karl Marx" & R. M. Hare on "Moral Philosophy" ??
I like this
When I hear this brilliant man speaking, I wonder to myself: how did so many morons end up running things? It seems that the world is completely devoid of critical thinking.
The sheeple accept all the lies they are told without question.
People compete to achieve traits that they are rewarded for, and those traits only rarely include clear thinking.
Philosophy isnt really practical and society values much more practice than theory, this is why this profile of people is rare in authority positions.
"Yes.. we're all individuals".. Life of Brian"
That I purchased with a fake ID..... my name was Bryan Magee......... I stayed up listening to Queen............ when I was seventeen..................
We progress as a society by "killing the beliefs of our fathers"? What if our fathers had it right? Surely obeying our father then would be the right thing.
Throwing some shade on Bertrand Russell at the end.
".....if the imagination is to be stirred...."
Looking at today's television programme compared to this series I feel sad. It seems today we prefer to watch mainly trivial entertaining shows. Why don't we like philosophy education any more?
You are making a presumption then lamenting it. You imply "we" and "any more." This presumes that there is a we who in the past "liked" philosophy education, and now does not. I think if you were to review how you make these presumptions, you might discard them and empty. I direct you to my own comment, where I address your point differently.
@@johnsmith1474 thank you for this feedback.
No. People don't by necessity have a problem with being analyzed... They have a problem with being misunderstood.
Hi. Just wondering if there's an option to view the transcript in English (as it comes up "German - auto generated") Thanks.
While I think manufacturing intellect is a disgusting name, I still thank you for giving me the opportunity to consume this.
25:34 Stonehenge was "empirical" astronomy. There are other examples. Eratosthenes used mathematical principals to calculate the circumference of the earth. He used astronomical bodies to do this.
This level of discussion agitates and angers well-off (those who have food & shelter) modern people (all Americans), who suffer the ironic burden of endless choices in what takes their attention, many of which assuage/sedate the thought processes rather than challenge it. "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - Donald Robert Perry "Don" Marquis.
_Let us for a moment consider thought. What is it, my friends, to take thought? Took you then thought today? What thoughts did you think today? What thoughts were part of the original thought today? In how many of your thoughts did the creation abide? Was love contained? And was service freely given? You are not part of a material universe. You are part of a thought. You are dancing in a ballroom in which there is no material. You are dancing thoughts. You move your body, your mind, and your spirit in somewhat eccentric patterns for you have not completely grasped the concept that you are part of the original thought._
Ra Material
Thanks for the upload. Is there way to get hold of the transcript?
Yes - use your pen! Or feed the sound into Google Voice.
A bit late, but if it's of any help, there is a book of transcripts from the series - 'Men of Ideas' by Bryan Magee - I don't think it's still in print, but used copies should be easy to find.
"What is meant by Kant?" About three volumes.
This may have been recorded in 1976 I don't recall it being shown until 1977 or 78.
It was in '78.
Isaiah Berlin was a great political thinker.
"THE WAYS OF HEAVEN ARE DARK AND INTRICATE" JOHN ADAMS 1775
Isaiah Berlin is that Rees-Mogg guy of back in the day
Does anybody know where his Heinrich Heine quote (14:05) stands or how it continues? I'd be grateful for the clarification.
Justus K From Wikipedia:
"In 1834, 99 years before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized power in Germany, Heine wrote in his work "The History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany":
"Christianity - and that is its greatest merit - has somewhat mitigated that brutal Germanic love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. This talisman is fragile, and the day will come when it will collapse miserably. Then the ancient stony gods will rise from the forgotten debris and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and finally Thor with his giant hammer will jump up and smash the Gothic cathedrals. (...)
"Do not smile at my advice - the advice of a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder is of true Germanic character; it is not very nimble, but rumbles along ponderously. Yet, it will come and when you hear a crashing such as never before has been heard in the world's history, then you know that the German thunderbolt has fallen at last. At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in the remotest deserts of Africa will hide in their royal dens. A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.""
Mr. Berlin was actually quoting himself from a paper 'Two concepts of Liberty' (1958). This paper and others of his can be read in a book 'The Power of Ideas'. The quote is:
'Over a hundred years ago, the German poet Heine warned the French not to underestimate the power of ideas: philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor's study could destroy a civilisation'
The truth above philosophy is the truth and reality. The daily life only. Other is waste
I love this guys linguistic brilliance!.. he said 'with a God on the top and amoeba on the bottom' LMFAO and that is indeed a perfect summation of what average people think is "natural"...
Their definiton of a philosophical question would make "Do you like apples?" a philosophical question.
So sad to say this but there's no subtitle and sometimes I do not understand what Isiah Berlin is saying for Christ's sake.
Yeah, same dilemma here, hehehe.
"ALL MEN DESIRE TO KNOW." ARISTOTLE
14:05 , Can anyone give me the reference to the actual quote by Heinrich Heine, i tried searching his works on 'The Gutenberg project' but to no avail.
I believe it is from Heine's 'Religion and philosophy in Germany' from p. 106 and onwards in the translated edition available on archive dot org. It's more likely a paraphrase than a quote
@@househead92 Thanks, just finished it. Hell of a read. just discovered whole new world of german enlightenment.
Empirical questions/solved with common sense or science.
Formal questions/the rules set in place
Philosophical questions are outside these two formats.
met Brian's brother Ulick, Ulick Magee, one time
Keep asking those questions. I feel more than ever that the western capitalist cultural hegemony is now so dominant that these questions are seen as irrelevant. Science and technology have all the answers and therefore those who are more dominant in such areas also have all the answers.
Him, speaking fluent English, changed his Russia dramatically. He does not have any accent, but you can hear English Influence in his Russian. Interesting.
Of course he has an accent. He has a public school accent or Oxford accent of the time he studied there that is blend with his native Russian tongue
No one likes their assumptions examined, especially when they're grasped firmly and you're asked to cough
Wait, isn't the empirical world comprised of particular forms? And isn't this precisely why the world of particular empirical forms is so amenable to description and prediction by the more general statements about forms, known as formal systems? For example, the phenomenon named after Ohm for his discovery of it, and his description of it using the formal system of mathematics, makes it evident that there is a perfect correspondence between the physics of electricity and the logos of arithmetic. Not only can we reliably assume that Ohms law holds true anywhere in the universe that electrical phenomena might occur, but we could also make nearly perfect predictions about it, provided we were there to measure things, of course. Even if we weren't there, however, we can reasonably assume (owing to empiricism) that electricity behaves the same anywhere it shows up in the universe, and (owing to its formal representation in mathematics) we can further assume that it would behave in such and such precise manner under such and such conditions--conditions themselves just as amenable to mathematical expression. Moreover, once the fundamental nature of electrical phenomena was discovered by Ohm and given expression using the symbols of the formal system of mathematics, it was then possible to derive myriad other expressions algebraically from Ohms law. Of course these derivatives were a priori until they were confirmed by the a posteriori rigors of empiricism, but there was no reason to doubt that such conclusions wouldn't be true. My point is that there is hardly a natural or clear division between the behavior of formal systems and empirical observations. These divisions are a recent, artificial creation, a clever invention, made in the casual manner of those who would rather persuade indirectly by artful suggestions than by actual demonstrating that there are two wholly separate spheres of intelligence that only touch and overlap within the confines of a college graduate's skull. I'm willing to wager that the motive behind their implied suggestion--that some real distinction exists between empirical phenomena and the symbol systems we have contrived to represent them--is simply to refute, on the sly, the age-old proposition that the observable world of nature only exists by conforming to the breathtaking patterns an a priori Order, some of which are so complex and magnificent as to defy comprehension. This is my conception of what the ancient Greeks referred to as Logos, and it is so clear to me as to be self-evident. The symbols used in formal systems to designate quanta are arbitrary works of art, their only requirement being that they must differ from one another. The underlying rules--i.e., proportionality, equality, addition, etc.-- by which these symbols are made to relate, are not arbitrary, however. These underlying rules express the order of the Logos that structures not only formal systems, but also the observable world of natural phenomena.
Time is a thing, a being of a different kind to matter and space. Ontological non-monism is the only way to base free will soundly - but Berlin doesn't want to say this lest he alienate his fellows such as Sir Karl Popper.
"THAT MORAL EXCELLENCE, THEN IS CONCERNED WITH THE PLEASANT AND THE PAINFUL IS CLEAR. BUT SINCE THE CHARACTER, BEING AS ITS NAME INDICATES SOMETHING THAT GROWS BY HABIT -- CONSIDER, THEN, CHARACTER TO BE THIS, VIZ. A QUALITY IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOVERNING REASON BELONGING TO THE IRRATIONAL PART OF THE SOUL WHICH IS YET ABLE TO OBEY THE REASON."
ARISTOTLE; EUDEMIAN ETHICS; BOOK II. SECTION 2.
"ALL HUMAN BEINGS HAVE AN INNATE RESISTANCE TO OBEDIENCE. DISCIPLINE REMOVES THIS RESISTANCE AND, BY CONSTANT REPETITION, MAKES OBEDIENCE HABITUAL AND SUBCONSCIOUS."
GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON JR.; "WAR AS I KNEW IT"; HOUGHTON MIFFLIN; 1947
Sometimes I wish the kind of moral philosophies that Magee recapitulates in the middle of the interview were ‘answerable’. I’ll read something that convinced me one way and the next day I’ll read something that does the opposite. And I end up knowing way more than I did before I read the arguments to and for, but I am no closer to resolution. It’s a bit… unsatisfying/maddening/depressing depending on the day. :(
Philosophers ask all the right questions but rarely provide any answers.
Are we getting dumber as a society? Very few people can express complex thoughts as clearly these days
Who is Sir Isaiah's tailor?
SAINT JOHN 8:32
AND YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH: AND THE TRUTH WILL SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.
Empirical questions have only one correct answer. Philosophical questions can have more than one answer.
Who can't remember which of Berlin's can'ts you can, or can't, grok?