Men Of Ideas: The Lost Episodes ⟩ “We’re all Marxists now”
Details
Everything that really matters about a society must be determined by how it maintains itself in existence, because what people have to do to keep alive decides their relationship to Nature and to each other, and therefore ultimately to everything else that grows up on these bases. So the truly decisive thing at any given time in any society is what the means of production are. When they change, people’s ways of life have to change, and the way individuals relate to each other has to change, and thus the organization of classes changes. It also follows that as long as the means of production are in the hands of a section of society rather than the whole of it a conflict of class interests is inevitable. For this reason the whole of history up to now is a history of class struggles. This is bound to continue until the means of production are taken over by society as a whole — thereby abolishing classes, in Marx’s sense, altogether — and held in common ownership, and run in the common interest.
In this riveting paragraph, Magee delivers a razor-sharp summary of Marx’s world-gripping ideas. What may appear as self-evident truths are invigorated by Magee’s meticulous analysis, rejuvenating their inherent power. In this week’s conversation, Marx is renewed, distilled, and transposed into the marvelous cognitive key of CLEAR.
Welcome esteemed scholars to Bryan Magee’s electrifying encounter with Charles Taylor—Canadian philosopher, founder of the British New Left, critic of “the individual,” and greatest living communitarian.
Behold the incomparable Magee at his zenith, dissecting Marx’s transformative ideas with unparalleled insight and crystallizing them into immaculate focus—and asking the really important questions. The elegance of his summations in this episode is absolutely breathtaking—executed with such laser-focused precision that they reinvigorate our grasp of Marx and compel us to revisit the core principles with both awe and intellectual humility.
A Cosmic Confluence for Our Journey
Just when we thought our intellectual quest couldn’t be more fortuitously guided, the universe itself intervenes. Our hunt for the perfect ‘bridge episode’—to link Kenneth Clark’s art-historical chronology in Civilisation with Magee’s philosophical one in The Great Philosophers—has yielded cosmic fruit.
Introducing: Bryan Magee’s Men of Ideas: The Lost Episodes
Rediscovered after nearly two decades of obscurity, two long-lost episodes from Men of Ideas (MOI) have now been found. One of them, the Magee–Taylor conversation, is arguably the finest discourse on Marxism ever committed to film.
Encouraging Synchronicities
Recall that we just finished Civilisation (CIV) last month. Before that we covered MOI—and invited professors Harry Cleaver, Douglas Kellner, Steven Taubeneck, Cory Juhl, Ian Proops, and Stephen Phillips to provide expert insight into our topics. Two episodes from MOI—EP02 with Charles Taylor and EP08 with R.M. Hare—have been missing for over 18 years. However, a recent trip to the campus AV library has filled this gap, providing us with high-quality 720p versions of these episodes. I’m currently crafting enriched subtitles, which will be added by Monday.
The fortuitous timing of this discovery is striking. We were just lamenting the absence of these episodes during our coverage of MOI, and now, right before diving into The Great Philosophers (TGP), they fall into our lap. Even more fitting is that they make the perfect bridge between CIV and TGP. What better way to transition from a chronological art history to a chronological history of philosophy than through the topics of Marxism and ethics? Isn't art just productive activity born from ethical imperatives and teloic drives?
METHOD
Please watch the episode before the event. We will then replay a few short clips during the event to refresh our memories for debate and discussion. A high-def version of this episode with remastered audio and enriched subtitles can be found here:
Study materials for all events, including a downloadable PDF of the MOI book (hint: purple icon in the “THORR Media Vault”) can be found here:
The Great Philosophers
Following our exploration of these two long-elusive episodes, we will delve into the crème de la crème of philosophical series—TGP. This series serves as a comprehensive journey through Western philosophy, from the dialogues of Socrates to the existentialism of Sartre. Magee’s earlier series, MOI, is already hailed as the zenith of telecourses. Remarkably, TGP transcends even this, launching us into the enigmatic territory of surpassing the unsurpassable.