Overview[edit]

In this series, Magee discussed the major historical figures of Western philosophy with fifteen contemporary philosophers. The series covered the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, among others, ending with a discussion with John Searle on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. Extensively revised versions of the dialogues of The Great Philosophers are available in a book of the same name.^[1] DVDs of, and streaming rights to, the series are sold to academic institutions^[2] and episodes are available to stream to those with access to the Alexander Street academic database.^[3] Neither this series, nor Magee's 1978 series Men of Ideas, are commercially available to home users but most of the episodes from both are freely available on YouTube.^[4] The theme played over the opening credits comes from the third movement of Symphony No. 8 (Shostakovich).