Posted on 01/13/2020 6:30:24 AM PST by ConservativeDude
Sir Roger Scruton has died and Britain has lost her greatest conservative thinker, writer, fox hunting man, philosopher and all-round-hero of the right. Like so many of the bravest and best, he was a prophet almost without honour in his own country.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
To say that Roger Scruton was a source and inspiration is such a radical understatement. This man accomplished everything that a philosopher could. He was an authority on the history of philosophy, political philosophy and especially aesthetics (earlier, especially architecture but his work The Aesthetics of Music is a masterpiece).
But not only a philosopher, he wrote a few novels, a lot of journalism, a history of the Anglican Church and even composed an opera. He was called to the bar, but I don’t think he practiced much law. His books on hunting and wine are excellent.
He was also an activist from time to time. This article notes his work in Eastern Europe during the cold war, and it was extensive. I had so looked forward to what his work on the architectural commission would turn into, but because of the disgraceful interruption that work had, and now his passing, I guess we will not have the privilege of that.
I had wanted to attend his summer camp last summer, called Scrutopia. I wasn’t able to. I thought maybe 2020. Obviously I should have tried harder last year.
This is a very sad day indeed. This man was a global treasure of civilization.
Certainly we can all note his message near the end: the meaning of life is gratitude.
While we might add to that, certainly we cannot dispute it.
Yes I had first learned of him from someone I highly respect and admire. After reading more about him I learned he was a great light and now I know many will miss him greatly.
Not to belabor the point. But when I consider how I think about the world.....Scruton’s fingerprints are everywhere.
In his Aesthetics of Music, he is so thorough, and so enthusiastic for our musical tradition, you just cannot be unchanged. But one of the most interesting aspects is his graciousness to “modern” music. He never rails against it, but he engages it seriously and even says that one cannot escape the feeling that something profound is happening here. Eventually he explains with convincing clarity that ultimately....the the extent that any music succeeds, it succeeds as music and by that he means engagement with the traditional elements of our musical heritage.
Which is to say: Scruton was never stodgy. He didn’t believe that creativity was over, and that there could never be new music. But...like TS Eliot (who he revered, of course), he knew that the new forms had to be deeply conversant with the past, even as it forged ahead into a future, as circumstances change.
I always like modern architecture better than Scruton...personally, I find the London skyline pleasing and when I scan the Thames and see the modern stuff, I actually find it aesthetically pleasing. I also like popular/rock music...and I think when you look at great bands and the great transition movements....you see precisely the same elements of aesthetic achievement that he taught us to see/identify/revere. I’d like to think that he would secretly laugh when I trot out his arguments to explain why The Ramones are great; and the Clash is even greater. And U2 wouldn’t exist without them, etc.
This is a sad day indeed.
But I’m extraordinarily grateful for the life of this man. In the realm of non-fiction prose, I don’t think I can think of someone more important to me. TS Eliot is still more important, but that’s because of his poetry; Gentleman from Moscow is my favorite novel, Mark Helprin is my favorite novelist....Mahler, my composer. But when it comes to philosophy and making critical/analytic sense of the world, and learning how to critically follow it and participate in it, Scruton is the man.
I would encourage you to consider what areas you enjoy the most, and would like to be better informed in. Then, search out Scruton’s books in that field. Almost certainly, you will find that he wrote something excellent in that field.
Scuton:”‘Conservatives are people who love something actual and want to retain it.’”
Delingpole: “Conservatism, unlike the hate-riddled philosophy of modern leftism, does not define itself in opposition to things nor is it obsessed with theory. Rather it springs from the very things the left is always accusing it of lacking – positivity and love).”
He was good for our time but in no way was he close to a John Locke who actually put his neck on the line to publish his “Two Treatises Of Government”.
Early on, he was somewhat active with the Thatcher people. But I believe he saw the futility of politics, and I also think the he wanted to flush out deep conservatism, while Thatcher really is more of a libertarian. So he turned more to philosophy and education for civilization, which in Eastern Europe ended up looking like political activism. And in Eastern Europe, he most certainly did take some risk and did in fact smuggle in forbidden books and papers from time to time.
So he wasn’t as much of an activist as Locke, that is certainly true.
But I think he was a better philosopher. I think Locke’s epistemology is a sad and amateurish, and really somewhat destructive within the context of our tradition. The west would be better off if Locked had done only activism and journalism, in my opinion. (I don’t know what Scruton would say about that). :)
That’s illuminating on so many levels. It explains conservatism. But, it also explains leftism.
How do you know what a particular leftist is up to?
Just listen to what they say about the conservative they are mad about at that moment.
It never fails.
Only conservatism embodies a philosophy of creation, life-giving, awe, beauty, positivity and love.
Thank you for your posts.
And Kant? It seems he took Kant intravenously for his earlier aesthetic positions. Can damage the veins.
You understand that Locke wrote during the time of Cromwell and that authors were being executed for their writings under reign of both the roundheads and cavaliers. His Second Treatises was guide for our Founders.
Not his aesthetics. Noooooooo.
He was really a Burkean in spirit with his aesthetics (and obviously his politics). He just flushed out Burke’s aesthetics, and actually meaningfully applied them both in music and in architecture.
Now to your point....he was an expert on Kant. It’s difficult for me to tell how much he actually liked Kant. But he has helped countless people (myself included) understand Kant. (Well, should I say, understand him better; perhaps even passably).
Kant infuriates me. And his complete disinterest in music and painting is ghastly. Kant was a shell of a human being. Scruton teaches us how to be a civilized human being.
That’s my take :)
Yes. And it was one guide, one source. But not the only one. I wrote a master’s thesis on the Founders’ sources, and I readily acknowledge Locke’s place. But he’s just one among several.
(And if you really want to dig deep....and you look at how much the Founders quoted Scripture, and how often Locke, too, quoted Scripture....then all of a sudden, the Bible gets larger and larger and larger as a source....)
Of course. In the decadent phase of Western Civilization truth is held in contempt.
Thanks for posting.
I do not recall ever hearing this man’s name.
Strange, since I read National Review and watched Buckley on Firing Line for decades.
He was also the organist at his church on Sundays. A man of great thought and wide ranging talent, he will be missed.
What was his source, if not Kant?
good heavens. I had no idea! But I’m not surprised. That’s awesome.
I would say get his Aesthetics of Music. It’s totally worth the effort, and you will get a feel for the extent and magnitude of his sources.
Even if you are not particularly interested in music, his chapter on Culture (chapter 15) is amazing and it sets forth clearly the conservative approach to building civilization, making judgments and so on.
To me, this chapter and really this entire book is simply indispensable. :)
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