CONFESSIONS OF A PHILOSOPHER: A Journey through Western Philosophy.

By Bryan Magee. Random House. 496 pp. $25.95

"Life... hurled fundamental problems of philosophy in my face," the author declares, somewhat melodramatically, in this appealing intellectual autobiography. A former philosophy professor who calls himself "a commentator rather than a player," Magee wants to persuade the educated lay public that philosophical problems deserve our contemplation and that the writings of philosophers, even the "heavy going" ones, merit our attention. This is not Magee’s first attempt to stimulate interest in philosophy; he also created two widely admired programs for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Men of Ideas and The Great Philosophers.

What most interests Magee is the nature of nonscientific knowledge, especially knowledge derived from art. What, he asks, do we learn from art, given that "the creation of, and response to, authentic art are not activities of the conceptualizing intellect?" Drawing on Schopenhauer, Magee argues that art is a kind of "direct experience"—an experience that cannot be put into words—that brings meaning to our lives. Blending the sensibility of the aficionado with that of the philosopher, Magee deems music the most meaningful of the arts: it creates "an alternative world, and one that reveals to us the profoundest metaphysical truths that human beings are capable of articulating or apprehending, though of course we are not capable of apprehending them conceptually."

Magee’s ideas about "direct experience" are not completely clear. What is a metaphysical truth that cannot be apprehended conceptually? Moreover, the book’s autobiographical elements can be distracting—or, occasionally, banal, as when Magee dwells on the "existential challenge" of his midlife crisis. But at its best, Confessions of a Philosopher is a compelling guide to some perennial problems of philosophy.

—Stephen Miller