Roger Scruton is the heretic we need
The secret radical had no time for lying fools
BY DOUGLAS MURRAY
After the demise of great men and women, their reputations often dip. Fulsome obituaries are usually followed by a fall-off in interest. It takes time for the new generation to discover the greats afresh and for their reputations to regenerate. But I doubt this rule would ever have applied to Roger Scruton.
The philosopher’s standing was at its height when he died last year at the age of 75. The second of his three great books on Wagner had recently come out; his advice was sought by the British Government; conservative intellectuals and politicians across Europe were eager to seek his approval. His life ended just as his reputation reached the stage it ought to have been at for decades: though by the time he died he had become Sir Roger Scruton, he had spent many years in a type of intellectual isolation, if not wilderness.
Confessions of a Heretic is a selection of otherwise uncollected essays which deal with some subjects of Scruton’s ire. They also tackle the timeless issues to which he dedicated a lifetime of energy. Although Scruton is generally referred to as a “conservative philosopher,” he ought simply to be referred to as a “philosopher”. The deepest works in this book — his “Effing the Ineffable” and his “Reflection on Strauss’s Metamorphosen,” for example — go far deeper than mere politics.
Read the full article HERE.