Roger Scruton, Conservative Philosopher, Age 75

[Husky_Khan]

He passed away from cancer.

‘You Mean a Lot to a Lot of Us’ | National Review

Notes on the late Sir Roger Scruton.

www.nationalreview.com

RIP Britain's Greatest Conservative Philosopher, Sir Roger Scruton

He provided the most satisfying definition of conservative values I've ever heard: 'people who love something actual and want to retain it.’

www.breitbart.com

On why he became a Conservative...

'I went to Paris after graduating, to France, and I was in Paris during 1968 and I saw what leftism really means. You know it means the destruction of that civilization that I’d come to love and, in particular in France, which was for me and object of pilgrimage, this place of high culture and wonderful literature and this history being at the heart of everything and the beautiful architecture,' he said. 'All that influenced me away from any leftist position and when it came to observing the street battles between the Maoist students and the terrified policemen, I found myself on the side of the latter.'

What I saw was an unruly mob of self-indulgent middle-class hooligans. When I asked my friends what they wanted, what were they trying to achieve, all I got back was this ludicrous Marxist gobbledegook. I was disgusted by it, and thought there must be a way back to the defence of western civilisation against these things. That's when I became a conservative. I knew I wanted to conserve things rather than pull them down."

On Conservatism and Conservation...

'The conservative picture, as I see it, is that we draw upon people with social motives. It’s the old Burkean idea that society is a relation of trans-trusteeship between the unborn and the dead... Much better adapted to the environmental problem than the liberal emphasis on freedom and the socialist emphasis on state control.'

He earned a Knighthood from the United Kingdom in 2016, medals of merit from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland due to his actions during the Cold War in Eastern Europe and was widely recognized for his philosophy and writings in regards to traditional conservative values, political philosophy, aesthetics in art, sexuality and many other topics. He was a very prolific author and writer with over fifty works including novels and operas.

 

[Lanmandragon]

Rest in peace good sir.

 

[LordsFire]

This is a nice, bite-sized bit of commentary that shows how insightful he can be. Of course, not everybody will get the same thing out of HP that Scruton describes here, but it's easy to see how that fits with it.

 

[Terthna]

This is a nice, bite-sized bit of commentary that shows how insightful he can be. Of course, not everybody will get the same thing out of HP that Scruton describes here, but it's easy to see how that fits with it.

You say insightful; I can see how you would think of him in such terms, after watching that video. Personally though, I don't agree; then again, I'm not a conservative, so that's not a surprise either. Still sad to hear of his passing though.

 

[Curved_Sw0rd]

An article about him from Quillette.

Remembering Roger Scruton, Defender of Reason in a World of Postmodern Jackals

Scruton did not entertain petty prejudices, and had no wish to tell anyone how to live or who to love.

quillette.com

 

[Hlaalu Agent]

Roger Scruton is dead. That makes me very sad, the man was brilliant. Rest in peace.

 

[The Name of Love]

Scruton’s virtues

The Guardian reports that conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton has died . I vividly recall the first time I became aware of Scr...

edwardfeser.blogspot.com

The above article by Edward Feser on the man is one that sings of his virtues. Having read Scruton, I must agree.

My personal favorite part of the article.

Scruton’s thought is so deep and wide-ranging that it cannot possibly be summarized in a few lines. But there are three aspects of his conservatism that stand out especially – the first having to do with its content, the second with its intellectual quality, the third with its moral quality.

As to its content, what is most distinctive about Scruton’s conservatism is its emphasis on the unique nature and dignity of the person. Now, there is a lot of woolly and mediocre thinking of a “personalist” nature. But not from Scruton. His own articulation and applications of this idea – from his account of the phenomenology of sexual desire, to his emphasis on the personal nature of social institutions (traditionally known as the idea of the corporate person or moral person) – are of the first rank, and will stand as an important contribution to conservative theory.

As to the intellectual quality of Scruton’s thinking, in addition to the virtues I’ve already mentioned is its nuance. All conservative thought is wary of the ideologue, who insists on wedging the complexity of human moral and social life into the procrustean bed of a simplistic abstract model. But as Oakeshott warned, a conservative thinker must be cautious lest his opposition to this sort of thing transform him into a counter-ideologue. Scruton never fell into this trap. To take one example, this was evident in his treatment of capitalism, a subject about which too many other conservatives show little nuance. Some, rightly repelled by socialism and the pathologies of the welfare state, will listen to no criticism of capitalism. Others, rightly put off by this libertarian extremism, go to the opposite extreme of refusing to see any merit in capitalism. Scruton rightly saw that capitalism is an enormously complex phenomenon that has both salutary and pernicious elements which, unfortunately, are difficult to disentangle. His treatment of environmentalism is similarly subtle.

As to the moral character of Scruton’s work, what stood out most starkly was the admirable piety and gratitude that motivated it. Modern intellectuals tend to be spoiled and ungracious creatures, whose inclination to bitch and moan seems only to increase the better things get, and who seem to occupy themselves concocting ever more recherché reasons for badmouthing their society and their forebears. Scruton, by contrast, was a man who manifestly deeply loved and appreciated our Western cultural inheritance, for all its faults, and stood up for it the way a loyal son would stand up for his mother and father. As his moving piece in the Spectator last month showed, this sense of gratitude was left undiminished by the sufferings of the last year of Scruton’s life.

 

[The Name of Love]

This is a great video on the man, and the shoes he leaves behind for us to fill.