Roger Scruton was a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington and Professor at the University of Buckingham, for which he teaches an MA and a PhD program in London.
In 2010 he gave the Gifford Lectures in St Andrews under the title of 'The Face of God'. The lectures have been collected and published under the title The Face of God (Continuum, 2012),
In 2011 he gave the Stanton Lectures in the Divinity School at the University of Cambridge. The eight lectures can be viewed here, and were published in 2014 as The Soul of the World (Princeton University Press).
He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a fellow of the British Academy.
Roger Scruton's prolific writing has led to the publication of many books in the last decade or so including England: An Elegy (Continuum, Books, 2000), an attempt to give identity to the idea of England and a tribute to its values and institutions; Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde' (OUP, 2003), an analysis of the musical and spiritual meaning of Wagner's work; News from Somewhere: On Settling (Continuum, 2003), an evocative account of the author's attempt to put down roots in rural Wiltshire; A Political Philosophy (Continuum, 2006), a thoughtful response to the development and decline of western civilization, The West and the Rest (ISI, 2001), an analysis of the values held by the 'West' and how they are distinct from those held by other cultures. Gentle Regrets (Continuum, 2006) and On Hunting (Random House, 1998) are two autobiographical works. A third edition of A Dictionary of Political Thought was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2007; it provides a concise and comprehensive collection of definitions for political thought and processes. Among his most recent books are Our Church: A Personal History of the Church of England (Atlantic, 2012), Beauty: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2009); The Uses of Pessimism (Atlantic Books, 2010), Green Philosophy (Atlantic, 2012; published in the United States as How to Think Seriously About the Planet), The Ring of Truth, a study of Wagner’s Ring cycle (Penguin, 2016), Where We Are: The State of Britain Now, Bloomsbury 2017. His most recent novels are Notes from Underground, Beaufort Books, 2014 and The Disappeared, Bloomsbury Reader 2016. A book of stories, Souls in the Twilight, was published by Beaufort Books, New York, in October 2018.
Below you will find a summary of Roger's career in his own words.
Education:
- High Wycombe Royal Grammar School, 1954-1961
- Jesus College Cambridge: 1962-65 and 1967-1969
- Inner Temple, London: 1974-76.
Degrees and diplomas:
- B.A. Cambridge 1965 in Moral Sciences (=Philosophy), double first.
- M.A. Cambridge 1967.
- Ph. D. Cambridge, in philosophy, with thesis on aesthetics, 1972.
- Bar Part 1, Inns of Court, London, 1975 (Struben Prize, Profumo Prize, second in order of merit).
- Bar Part 2, Inns of Court, London 1976 (called to the Bar 1978).
Honorary Degrees:
- Honorary Doctorate, Adelphi University, New York, 1995
- Honorary Doctorate, Masaryk University, Brno, 1997
- Honorary Doctorate, Hillsdale College, Michigan, 2012
- Honorary Doctorate, European University of Tirana, Albania, 2016
Other Honours:
- Academic Medal, University of Helsinki, 1989
- Fellow, European Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1995
- lst June Prize, City of Plzen, 1996
- Medal for Merit, First Class, Czech Republic, 1998
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 2003.
- Ingersoll-Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters, 2004.
- Gold Medal for the support of culture and the arts in Poland, Polish Ministry of Culture 2007
- Honorary Bencher, Inner Temple, London 2015
- Lech-Kaczynski Award for intellectual courage, integrity and friendship to Poland, 2016.
- Sappho Award, The Danish Free Speech Society, 2016
- Knight Bachelor 2016
- Order of Merit from the Republic of Poland, 2018
- Silver Medal by the Senate of the Czech Parliament, 2019
- Commander’s Cross with the Star of the Order of Merit of Hungary, 2019
Academic Career:
- Research Fellow, Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1969-71.
- Lecturer, subsequently Reader and Professor of Aesthetics, Dept. of Philosophy, Birkbeck College, London, 1971-1992
- Professor of Philosophy and University Professor, Boston University, 1992-95.
- Research Professor, Institute for the Psychological Sciences (2005 - 2008)
- Visiting Professor, James Madison Program, Princeton University (2006)
- Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy and Fellow of Blackfriars Hall Oxford (2009 - )
- Visiting Professor, School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies at the University of St Andrews (2011 - 2014)
- Visiting Professor, School of Humanities, University of Buckingham. Leading a Masters degree in Philosophy. (2015 - present)
I have held visiting positions at Princeton, Stanford, Louvain, Guelph (Ontario), Witwatersrand (S. Africa), Waterloo (Ontario), Oslo, Bordeaux, Cambridge and elsewhere, and have been invited to give lectures in many universities in Europe, America, Canada and Australia.
Business career:
- Founder and Director of Claridge Press Ltd., 1987 - 2004.
- Co-founder and director of Central European Consulting Ltd, 1989 - 2004. (Small firm of Government Relations consultants, with offices in Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest and Kiev.)
- Co-founder of, and consultant for, Horsell's Farm Enterprises, public affairs consultancy and diversified farm 1999 - present.
Journalism
- Freelance writer and journalist, starting in 1974 or thereabouts.
- Editor of The Salisbury Review, 1982-2001.
Voluntary Work:
- Co-founder and trustee of The Jan Hus Educational Foundation, working now in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (1980–present).
- Co-founder and trustee of the Jagiellonian Trust, working in Poland and Hungary (1982–89, now defunct, since no longer needed).
- Founder and trustee of the Anglo-Lebanese Cultural Association, working for reconciliation between the Lebanese sects (1987–95, now defunct, on account of Syrian & Hezbullah occupation).
- Board member of the Civic Institute in Prague. (1990-present).
Publications:
I have published more than 50 books nearly all of which are in print and many of which have been translated.
- Art and Imagination (1974)
- The Aesthetics of Architecture (1979)
- The Meaning of Conservatism (1980, second edition 1984, 3rd edn. 2000)
- The Politics of Culture and Other Essays (1981)
- Fortnight's Anger (a novel) (1981)
- A Short History of Modern Philosophy (1982, second edition 1995, 3rd edn. 2001)
- A Dictionary of Political Thought (1982, second edition 1996, third edition 2007)
- The Aesthetic Understanding (1983, new edition 1997)
- Kant (1983, new edn., 2001)
- Untimely Tracts (1985)
- Thinkers of the New Left (1986)
- Sexual Desire (1986)
- Spinoza (1987, new edn. 2002)
- A Land Held Hostage (Lebanon and the West) (1987)
- The Philosopher on Dover Beach and other essays (1989)
- Francesca (a novel) (1991)
- A Dove Descending and other stories (1991)
- Xanthippic Dialogues (1993)
- Modern Philosophy (1994)
- The Classical Vernacular: architectural principles in an age of nihilism (1995)
- Animal Rights and Wrongs (1996, third edn. 2000)
- An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy (1996)
- The Aesthetics of Music (1997)
- On Hunting (1998)
- An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture (1998, new edn. 2000)
- Spinoza (1998)
- Perictione in Colophon (2000)
- England: an Elegy (2001)
- The West and the Rest (2002)
- Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (2004)
- News from Somewhere: On Settling (2004).
- Gentle Regrets (2005).
- A Political Philosophy (2006)
- Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged (2007)
- Understanding Music (2009)
- I Drink Therefore I am (2009)
- Beauty (2010)
- The Uses of Pessimism (2010)
- Green Philosophy (2012)
- The Face of God (2012)
- Our Church: A Personal History of the Church of England (2012)
- The Soul of the World (2014)
- Notes from Underground (2014)
- How to be a Conservative (2014)
- The Disappeared (2015)
- Fools Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (2015)
- Confessions of a Heretic (2016)
- Conversations with Roger Scruton. With Dr Mark Dooley (2016)
- The Ring of Truth. The Wisdom of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (2016)
- On Human Nature (2017)
- Where We Are: The State of Britain Now (2017)
- Conservatism: Ideas in Profile. (2017)
- Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition (2018)
- Music As An Art (2018)
- Souls in the Twilight (2018)
- Wagner's Parsifal: The Music of Redemption (2020)
I have also published many articles, both refereed for academic journals and commissioned for non-academic journals. Some of these have been anthologized.
Other literary and creative work:
Poems, stories and pamphlets have been published here and there. I have also written three libretti, two of which I have set to music, the first having secured several performances (a one-act chamber opera called The Minister). The second, a two-act opera called Violet, based on the life of Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, was performed at the Guildhall School of Music on Nov. 30th and Dec 1st 2005.
Television documentary for BBC 2 Why Beauty Matters.
A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Point of View series.
I have edited or co-edited several collections of papers.
Editorial Positions:
I am a contributing editor to The New Atlantis, and also serve on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Aesthetics, The Salisbury Review, Arka (Kraków), and openDemocracy.
Research Interests:
I have always worked between disciplines, while at the same time attempting to develop my particular philosophical stance. Currently I am very interested in the philosophy of music, and am currently writing a book about Wagner’s Parsifal, in which I try to bring philosophical and musical analysis together in deciphering the meaning of that extraordinary work. I am frequently called upon to write about political and social matters and have therefore written about political philosophy too.
During the first decade of the new millennium I wrote a regular column on wine for The New Statesman in Britain, and a regular column on cultural matters for The American Spectator. I am well known in American academic circles, and have recently appeared in print in The American Spectator, The Wall Street Journal, Harpers, and National Review.
"There are few more valuable thinkers in Britain – or indeed, the world – today. His vilification and rejection by the academic establishment is disgraceful. In comparison with him, most of his critics are intellectual pygmies. Both left and right should be grateful to have such a man to sharpen and define the issues. And philosophers should be grateful that he has placed their subject at the very centre of current affairs. Perhaps Scruton's greatest contribution is his living demonstration of the truth that without philosophy we are nothing." Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times
Agent:
Roger Scruton's agent is:
Caroline Michel, Peters Fraser Dunlop
Contact: PFD | 55 New Oxford Street | London WC1A 1BS | Tel: 0207 344 1000| Fax: 020 7836 9523 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.| www.petersfraserdunlop.com|