Muokataan sivua Roger Scruton

'''Sir Roger Vernon Scruton''', Britannian akatemian jäsen |Fellow of British Academy}; syntynyt 27 helmikuutta 1944) on englantilainen filosofi ja kirjoittaja, jonka erityisalueina ovat estetiikka ja poliittinen filosofia.<ref name=Cowlingpxxix>Cowling, Maurice. ''Mill and Liberalism'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, xxix.</ref><ref>Garnett, Mark; Hickson, Kevin. ''Conservative thinkers: The key contributors to the political thought of the modern Conservative Party'', Oxford University Press, 2013, 113–115.</ref>

Scruton on kirjoittanut yli 50 kirjaa filosofiasta, taiteesta, musiikista, politiikasta, kirjallisuudesta, kulttuurista, seksuaalisuudesta ja uskonnosta. Hän on myös kirjoittanut romaaneja ja kaksi oopperaa. Hänen merkittävimpiin julkaisuihinsa kuuluvat ''The Meaning of Conservatism'' (1980), ''Sexual Desire'' (1986), ''The Aesthetics of Music'' (1997) ja ''[[How to Be a Conservative]]'' (2014).<ref>See [[Roger Scruton bibliography]].</ref> Hän on säännöllisesti kirjoittanut lehtiin kuten ''The Times'', ''The Spectator'' ja ''New Statesman''.

Scrutonin poliittisiin käsityksiin vaikutti se, että hänellä oli mahdollisuus seurata Ranskan opiskelijamellakoiva toukokuussa 1968. Vuosina 1971-1992 Scruton toimi estetiikan luennoitsijana ja professorina Lontoon yliopiston Birkbeck Collegessa. Sen jälkeen hänellä on ollut useita osa-aikaisia akateemisia virkoja sekä Englannissa että Yhdysvalloissa.<ref name=about/> Hän oli perustamassa 1980-luvulla maanalaista akateemista verkostoa nimeltä Jan Hus Educational Foundation Neuvostoliiton hallitsemassa Itä-Euroopassa. Siitä hyvästä presidentti Václav Havel myönsi hänelle Tsekkoslovakian ansiomitalin vuonna 1998.<ref>Day, Barbara. ''The Velvet Philosophers'', London: The Claridge Press, 1999, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jJNYvDr8YBgC&pg=PA281 281–282].</ref>

Scruton aateloitiin vuonna 2016 "palveluksistaan filosofian, opetuksen ja julkisen kasvatuksen" alueilla. <ref name=LondonGazette/>

== Elämä ja koulutus==

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| image1 = Jesus College, Cambridge - geograph.org.uk - 1062931.jpg
| caption1 = Scruton studied at [[Jesus College, Cambridge]] (1962–1965 and 1967–1969).
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| caption2 = He became a research fellow at [[Peterhouse, Cambridge]] (1969–1971).
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Scruton syntyi Buslingthorpessa, Lincolnshiressä. Vaikka hänen vanhempansa oli kasvatettu kristityiksi he pitivät itseään humanisteina, joten koti oli "uskonnosta vapaata aluetta".<ref>Scruton, Roger. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110225210343/http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/10/the-new-humanism "The New Humanism"], ''American Spectator'', March 2009.</ref>

Scruton sai koulusta niin hyväst arvosanat puhtaast aja sovelletusta matematiikasta, fysiikasta ja kemiasta, että hänelle myönnettiin vapaa stipendi opiskella luonnontieteitä Cambridgen yliopistossa. <ref name=about/><ref>''England: An Elegy'', 25.</ref> <ref>[http://www.rgs.saund.co.uk/pdfs/1962-09-wycombiensian.pdf "Examination successes, 1961–62"], ''Wycombiensian'', 13(6), September 1962, 328–330.</ref> <ref name=Edemariam/> Scruton kuitenkin siirtyi opiskelemaan moraalifilsofiaa Cambridgessä. <ref name=Wroe/><ref>For the quote, ''Gentle Regrets'', 34.</ref> Hän valmistui vuonna 1965,<ref name=about/> ja vietti sen jälkeen aikaa ulkomailla opettaen Ranskassa.<ref>Scruton, Roger; Dooley, Mark. ''Conversations with Roger Scruton''. London & New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016, 18, 35.</ref>

Vuonna 1967 hän alkoi opiskella tohtorin tutkintoa varten Cambridgessa ja sai siellä tutkijan aseman (1969–1971).<ref>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 18, 35.</ref> Käydessään Ranskassa toukokuun 1968 opiskelijamellakoiden aikana hän näki opiskelijoiden kaatavan autoja, rikkovan ikkunoita ja irrottavan katukiviä, mikä herätti hänessä "poliittista suuttumusta".

<blockquote style="border-left: 3px solid #ccc;"> Ymmärsin yhtäkkiä, että kuuluin eri puolelle. Näin itserakkaiden keskiluokan huligaanien unruly joukon. Kun kysyin ystäviltäni, mitä he halusivat, mitä he pyrkivät saavuttamaan, sain vastaukseksi vain naurettavaa marxilaista gobbledegook. Koin sen vastenmielisenä ja ajattelin, että täytyy olla olemassa tapa puolustaa länsimaista sivistystä tätä kaikkea vastaan. Silloin minusta tuli konservatiivi. Tiesin haluavani säilyttää asioita sen sijaan että repisin niitä alas. <ref name=Wroe/></blockquote>

[[File:Birkbeck College phototram.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Scruton taught at Birkbeck for 21 years.]]
Scruton valmistui filosofian tohtoriksi tammikuussa 1973 väitöskirjalla aiheesta "Art and imagination, a study in the philosophy of mind". Väitöstyötä ohjasviat Michael Tanner ja analyyttinen filosofi Elizabeth Anscombe.<ref>[https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/244964 "Art and imagination, a study in the philosophy of mind"], Apollo, University of Cambridge repository.</ref> Väitöskirja oli perustana hänen ensimmäiselle kirjalleen ''Art and Imagination'' (1974), jota seurasi ''The Aesthetics of Architecture'' (1979). Vuodesta 1971 hän opetti filosofiaa Birkbeck Collegessa, Lontoossa, joka keskittyy aikuiskasvatukseen ja pitää luentonsa iltaisin.<ref name=Gentlep39/> Samaan aikaan Scruton opiskeli lakia instituutiossa nimeltä Inns of Court School of Law (1974–1976). <ref name=about>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100831023120/http://www.roger-scruton.com/rs-cv.html "About"], roger-scruton.com, archived 31 August 2010.</ref><ref>''Gentle Regrets'', 57; Scruton and Dooley 2016, 39.</ref>

Birkbeck was known for its embrace of [[left-wing politics]]. Scruton has said he was the only conservative there, except for the woman who served meals in the [[Senior Common Room]].<ref name=Gentlep39>''Gentle Regrets'', 39.</ref> In 1974, along with [[Hugh Fraser (British politician)|Hugh Fraser]], [[Jonathan Aitken]] and [[John Casey (academic)|John Casey]], he became a founding member of the [[Conservative Philosophy Group]] dining club, which aimed to develop an intellectual basis for conservatism.<ref>''Gentle Regrets'', 45; Scruton and Dooley 2016, 46–47.</ref> The historian [[Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton|Hugh Thomas]] and the philosopher [[Anthony Quinton]] attended meetings, as did [[Margaret Thatcher]] before she became prime minister. She reportedly said during one meeting in 1975: "The other side have got an ideology they can test their policies against. We must have one as well."<ref>Young, Hugo. ''One of Us'', London: Pan Macmillan, 2013, 221.</ref>

Scruton's academic career at Birkbeck was blighted by his conservatism, particularly by his third book, ''The Meaning of Conservatism'' (1980),<ref>Scruton, Roger. ''The Meaning of Conservatism'', London: The Macmillan Press, and Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980.</ref><ref name=Goss2006>Goss, Maxwell. [http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/ScrutonConservative.php "The Joy of Conservatism: An Interview with Roger Scruton"], ''New Pantagruel'' (courtesy of orthodoxytoday.org), January 2006.</ref> and later by his editorship of the conservative ''Salisbury Review''.<ref>''Gentle Regrets'', 51; Scruton and Dooley 2016, 46.</ref> He told ''The Guardian'' that his colleagues at Birkbeck vilified him over the book.<ref name=Edemariam/> The Marxist philosopher [[Gerald Cohen|Jerry Cohen]] of [[University College London]] reportedly refused to teach a seminar with Scruton, although they later became friends.<ref name=SDp46>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 46.</ref> He continued teaching at Birkbeck until 1992, first as a lecturer, by 1980 as [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]], and then as professor of aesthetics.<ref>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 39.</ref>

===''The Salisbury Review''===
[[File:Roger Scruton (2015), Prague.jpg|thumb|Scruton in Prague, 2015]]
In 1982 Scruton became founding editor of ''[[The Salisbury Review]]'', a journal championing traditional conservatism in opposition to [[Thatcherism]], which he edited until 2001.<ref name=ScrutonSept212002/><ref>Scruton, Roger. ''Conservative Thoughts: Essays from the Salisbury Review'', London: The Claridge Press, 1988.</ref> The ''Review'' was set up by a group of Tories known as the Salisbury Group—founded in 1978 by Diana Spearman and [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury|Robert Gascoyne-Cecil]]<ref>Cowling 1990, [https://books.google.com/books?id=k_RjyJSr_z0C&pg=PR29 xxix].</ref>—with the involvement of the [[Peterhouse school of history|Peterhouse Right]]. The latter were conservatives associated with the Cambridge college, including [[Maurice Cowling]], [[David Watkin (historian)|David Watkin]] and the mathematician Adrian Mathias.<ref name=Wroe/><ref>For the Peterhouse Right (he calls it the Peterhouse Group) and ''The Salisbury Review'', see Haseler, Stephen. ''The battle for Britain: Thatcher and the New Liberals'', London: I.B. Tauris, 1989, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_vPwkkJUA6IC&pg=PA138 138]; ''Gentle Regrets'', 51.</ref>

Scruton wrote that editing ''The Salisbury Review'' effectively ended his academic career in the United Kingdom. The magazine sought to provide an intellectual basis for conservatism, and was highly critical of key issues of the period, including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, egalitarianism, feminism, foreign aid, multiculturalism and modernism. To begin with, Scruton had to write most of the articles himself, using pseudonyms: "I had to make it look as though there was something there in order that  ''there should be something there!''"<ref>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 47.</ref> He believes that the ''Review'' "helped a new generation of conservative intellectuals to emerge. At last it was possible to be a conservative and also to the ''left'' of something, to say 'Of course, the ''Salisbury Review'' is beyond the pale; but&nbsp;...'"<ref name=Gentlep59>''Gentle Regrets'', 59.</ref>

In 1984 the ''Review'' published a controversial article by [[Ray Honeyford]], a headmaster in Bradford, questioning the benefits of multicultural education.<ref>Honeyford, Ray. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3654888/Education-and-Race-an-Alternative-View.html "Education and Race—an Alternative View"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 27 August 2006 (reprint of Honeyford's 1984 article).</ref><ref>Scruton, Roger. [http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9252471/the-bradford-head-teacher-who-got-it-right-on-islam-and-education/ "Let's face it – Ray Honeyford got it right on Islam and education"], ''The Spectator'', 5 July 2014.</ref> Honeyford was forced to retire because of the article and had to live for a time under police protection.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9069943/Ray-Honeyford.html "Ray Honeyford"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 8 February 2012.{{pb}}
For background on the Honeyford controversy, see Miller, Kathryn. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1527371/Headteacher-who-never-taught-again-after-daring-to-criticise-multiculturalism.html "Headteacher who never taught again after daring to criticise multiculturalism"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 27 August 2006.{{pb}}
Halstead, Mark. ''Education, Justice, and Cultural Diversity: An Examination of the Honeyford Affair, 1984–85''. Barcombe: Falmer Press, 1988.</ref> The [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]] accused the ''Review'' of [[scientific racism]], and the [[University of Glasgow]] philosophy department boycotted a talk Scruton had been invited to deliver to its philosophy society. Scruton believed that the incidents made his position as a university professor untenable, although he also maintained that "it was worth sacrificing your chances of becoming a fellow of the [[British Academy]], a vice-chancellor or an emeritus professor for the sheer relief of uttering the truth".<ref name=ScrutonSept212002/><ref>''Gentle Regrets'', 77.</ref> (Scruton was in fact elected a [[fellow of the British Academy]] in 2008).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2008/index.cfm |title=Elections to the Fellowship 2008 – British Academy |publisher=britac.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=17 June 2012}}</ref> In 2002 he described the effect of the editorship on his life:

<blockquote style="border-left: 3px solid #ccc;"> It cost me many thousand hours of unpaid labour, a hideous character assassination in ''[[Private Eye]]'', three lawsuits, two interrogations, one expulsion, the loss of a university career in Britain, unendingly contemptuous reviews, Tory suspicion, and the hatred of decent liberals everywhere. And it was worth it.<ref name=ScrutonSept212002>Scruton, Roger. [http://www.spectator.co.uk/comic/my-life-beyond-the-pale/ "My life beyond the pale"], ''The Spectator'', 21 September 2002.</ref></blockquote>

===Writing===
The 1980s established Scruton as a prolific writer. Thirteen of his non-fiction works appeared between 1980 and 1989, as did first novel, ''Fortnight's Anger'' (1981). The most contentious publication was ''[[Thinkers of the New Left]]'' (1985), a collection of his essays from ''The Salisbury Review'', which criticized 14 prominent intellectuals, including [[E. P. Thompson]], [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]].{{efn|The subjects of ''[[Thinkers of the New Left]]'' are [[E. P. Thompson]], [[Ronald Dworkin]], [[Michel Foucault]], [[R. D. Laing]], [[Raymond Williams]], [[Rudolf Bahro]], [[Antonio Gramsci]], [[Louis Althusser]], [[Immanuel Wallerstein]], [[Jürgen Habermas]], [[Perry Anderson]], [[György Lukács]], [[John Kenneth Galbraith]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]].}} According to ''The Guardian'', the book was [[Remaindered book|remaindered]] after being greeted with "derision and outrage". Scruton said he became very depressed by the criticism.<ref name=Adams2015>Adams, Tim. [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/oct/04/roger-scruton-my-father-looked-like-jeremy-corbyn-fools-frauds-firebrands-interview "Roger Scruton: 'Funnily enough, my father looked very like Jeremy Corbyn'"], ''The Guardian'', 4 October 2015.</ref> In 1987 he founded his own publisher, The Claridge Press, which he sold to the [[Continuum International Publishing Group]] in 2002.<ref>"The Claridge Press and Continuum", ''The Salisbury Review'', 21–22, 2002, 56: "The Continuum International Publishing Group is delighted to announce the acquisition of the small, independent publishing house Claridge Press from its proprietor, the philosopher, Professor Roger Scruton."</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090709070236/http://www.aei.org/scholar/100052 "Roger Scruton"], American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 9 July 2009.</ref>

From 1983 to 1986 he wrote a weekly column for ''The Times''. Topics included music, wine and motorbike repair, but others were contentious. The features editor, [[Peter Stothard]], said that no one he had ever commissioned had "provoked more rage". Scruton made fun of anti-racism and the peace movement, and his support for [[Margaret Thatcher]] while she was prime minister was regarded, he wrote, as an "act of betrayal for a university teacher". His first column, "The Virtue of Irrelevance", argued that universities were destroying education "by making it relevant": "Replace pure by applied mathematics, logic by computer programming, architecture by engineering, history by sociology: the result will be a new generation of well-informed philistines, whose charmlessness will undo every advantage which their learning might otherwise have conferred."<ref name=ScrutonDooley2016p50>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 50–52.</ref><ref>Stothard, Peter. [http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2009/06/michael-jackson-man-of-the-stagnant-crowd-and-two-other-men.html "Michael Jackson, man of 'the stagnant crowd', and two other men"], ''The Times Literary Supplement'', 29 June 2009.</ref>

===Activism in Eastern Europe===

[[File:Roger Scruton, Budapest, September 2016 (2).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|Scruton on "Europe and the Conservative Cause", Budapest, September 2016]]
From 1979 to 1989, Scruton was an active supporter of [[dissident]]s in [[Czechoslovakia]] under [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia|Communist Party]] rule, forging links between the country's dissident academics and their counterparts in Western universities. As part of the Jan Hus Educational Foundation, he and other academics visited [[Prague]] and [[Brno]], now in the [[Czech Republic]], in support of an underground education network started by the Czech dissident [[Julius Tomin]], smuggling in books, organizing lectures, and eventually arranging for students to study for a Cambridge external degree in theology (the only faculty that responded to the request for help). There were structured courses, ''[[samizdat]]'' translations, books were printed, and people sat exams in a cellar with papers smuggled out through the diplomatic bag.<ref>Vaughan, David. [http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/roger-scruton-and-a-special-relationship "Roger Scruton and a special relationship"], Radio Prague, 31 October 2010.</ref><ref>Hanley, Seán. ''The New Right in the New Europe: Czech Transformation and Right-wing politics, 1989–2006'', Routledge, 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fKEJDo2smdQC&pg=PA47 47].</ref><ref>For the Jan Hus Educational Foundation, see Day 1999, 124ff.</ref>

Scruton was detained in 1985 in Brno before being expelled from the country. The Czech dissident [[:cs:Bronislava Müllerová|Bronislava Müllerová]] watched him walk across the border with Austria: "There was this broad empty space between the two border posts, absolutely empty, not a single human being in sight except for one soldier, and across that broad empty space trudged an English philosopher, Roger Scruton, with his little bag into Austria."<ref>Day 1999, 255.</ref> On 17 June that year, he was placed on the Index of Undesirable Persons. He writes that he was also followed during visits to Poland and Hungary.<ref name=Day1999p281/>

For his work in supporting dissidents, Scruton was awarded the First of June Prize in 1993 by the Czech city of [[Plzeň]], and in 1998 he was awarded the Czech Republic's [[Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)|Medal of Merit]] (First Class) by President [[Václav Havel]].<ref name=Day1999p281>Day 1999, 281–282; ''Gentle Regrets'', 142.</ref> Scruton has been strongly critical of figures in the West—in particular [[Eric Hobsbawm]]—who "chose to exonerate" former communist regimes' crimes and atrocities.<ref>Scruton, Roger. [http://articles.latimes.com/1991-09-05/local/me-2147_1_communist-party "The Day of Reckoning for the Apologists: Western collaborators with Soviet communism must be held accountable", ''Los Angeles Times'', 18 February 1987}}</ref> His experience of dissident intellectual life in 1980s Communist Prague is recorded in fictional form in his novel ''[[Notes from Underground (Scruton novel)|Notes from Underground]]'' (2014).

==1990s–2000s==

[[File:Albany Courtyard.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Scruton rented an apartment in the [[Albany (London)|Albany]]; the rooms had previously been [[Alan Clark]]'s [[servants' quarters]].]]
Scruton took a year's [[sabbatical]] from Birkbeck in 1990 and spent it working in Brno in the Czech Republic.<ref name=SDp109>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 109–112.</ref> That year he registered Central European Consulting, established to offer business advice in post-communist [[Central Europe]].<ref name=companyinterests>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100902062543/http://www.roger-scruton.com/rs-business.html "Company interests"], roger-scruton.com, accessed 2 September 2010.</ref> He had been living in an apartment in [[Notting Hill Gate]], which he sold, and when he returned to England rented a cottage in [[Stanton Fitzwarren]], Swindon, from [[the Moonies]] and an apartment in the [[Albany (London)|Albany]] building on [[Piccadilly]], London, from [[Alan Clark]] (it had been Clark's [[servants' quarters]]).<ref name=Wroe/><ref name=SDp109/>

From 1992 to 1995 he lived in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], teaching an elementary philosophy course and a graduate course on the [[philosophy of music]] for one semester a year, as professor of philosophy at [[Boston University]]. Two of his books grew out of these courses: ''Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey'' (1994) and ''The Aesthetics of Music'' (1997). In 1993 he bought Sunday Hill Farm in [[Brinkworth, Wiltshire|Brinkworth]], [[Wiltshire]]—35 acres, later increased to 100, and a 250-year-old farmhouse—where he lived after returning from the United States.<ref>Scruton and Dooley 2016.<!--add page number--></ref><ref name=Adams2015/><ref name=Ross1998>Ross, Deborah. [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/interview-roger-scruton-philosopher-musician-author-scourge-of-the-left-so-where-does-he-keep-his-1191298.html "Interview: Roger Scruton"], ''The Independent'', 13 December 1998.</ref>

[[File:Montpelier near Sperryville, closeup of house (cropped).JPG|thumb|left|upright=1.3|The Scrutons owned [[Montpelier (Sperryville, Virginia)|Montpelier]], near [[Sperryville, Virginia|Sperryville]], Virginia, from 2004 to 2009.<ref name=ScrutonDooley2016p192/>]]

Vuosina 2005-2009 Scruton toimi tutkimusprofessorina Institute for the Psychological Sciences Arlingtonissa, Virginiassa, ja vuonna 2009 hän toimi American Enterprise Institute Washington, D.C.ssa, jossa hän kirjoitti kirjansa ''Green Philosophy'' (2011).<ref>Scruton and Dooley 2016, 183.</ref>

Scruton has also written three [[Libretto|libretti]], two set to music. The first is a one-act chamber, ''The Minister'',<ref>Scruton, Roger. [http://hdl.handle.net/2144/14498 "The Minister. A one-act opera in six scenes"], OpenBU, Boston University Libraries.</ref> and the second a two-act opera, ''[[Violet (opera)|Violet]]''. The latter, based on the life of the British harpsichordist [[Violet Gordon-Woodhouse]], was performed twice at the [[Guildhall School of Music]] in London in 2005.<ref name=about/>

==2010s: Academic posts, knighthood==
The Scrutons returned from the United States to make their home again at Sunday Hill Farm in Wiltshire. Scruton took an unpaid research professorship at [[Buckingham University]],<ref name=about/> and in 2010 was awarded an unpaid visiting professorship at the [[University of Oxford]] to teach graduate classes on aesthetics.<ref>[http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/news__events/older_news/-_title_of_visiting_professor_conferred_on_roger_scruton "Title of Visiting Professor conferred on Roger Scruton"], Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford, accessed 27 December 2010.</ref> He is a senior research fellow at [[Blackfriars, Oxford|Blackfriars Hall]], Oxford.<ref>[http://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/hall/academic-staff/ "Academic staff"], Blackfriars.</ref> In 2010 he delivered the Scottish [[Gifford Lectures]] at the [[University of St Andrews]] on "The Face of God",<ref>[http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/gifford/2010/the-face-of-god/ "The Face of God"], University of St Andrews Gifford Lectures, 25 March 2010.</ref> and the following year he took up a quarter-time professorial fellowship at St Andrews in moral philosophy.<ref>[http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/philosophy/news/?newsid=130 "Roger Scruton appointed as quarter-time professorial fellow"], School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies, University of St Andrews, accessed 27 December 2010.</ref>

Two novels appeared during this period: ''[[Notes from Underground (Scruton novel)|Notes from Underground]]'' (2014) is based on his experiences in Czechoslovakia and ''[[The Disappeared (novel)|The Disappeared]]'' (2015) deals with child trafficking in a Yorkshire town.<ref>For the latter, Murray, Douglas. [http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/roger-scruton-a-prophet-in-his-own-land/ "'The truth is hard': an interview with Roger Scruton"], ''The Spectator'', 4 April 2015.</ref> Scruton was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the 2016 Birthday Honours for "services to philosophy, teaching and public education".<ref name=LondonGazette>{{London Gazette|issue=61608 |supp=y|page=B2|date=11 June 2016}}.{{pb}}
{{cite web | url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/528698/birthday_honours_2016_high_awards_notes.pdf | title=The 2016  Queen's Bithday Honours List | publisher=www.gov.uk | date=10 June 2016}}</ref> He sits on the editorial board of the ''[[British Journal of Aesthetics]]'',<ref>[http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/aesthj/editorial_board.html "Editorial board"], ''British Journal of Aesthetics'', accessed 6 December 2010.</ref> and is a senior fellow of the [[Ethics and Public Policy Center]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://eppc.org/author/roger_scruton/ |title=Roger Scruton|publisher=Ethics and Public Policy Center|accessdate=10 January 2013}}</ref>

== Philosophical and political views ==
===Aesthetics===
Scruton has specialised in [[aesthetics]] throughout his career. From 1971 to 1992 he taught aesthetics at Birkbeck College. His PhD thesis formed the basis of his first book, ''Art and Imagination'' (1974), in which he argued that "what demarcates aesthetic interest from other sorts is that it involves the appreciation of something for its own sake".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-aesthetics.org/91A877BE-2CEB-45A2-AD91-7FAD66D720F5/ForceRequestingFullContent/91A877BE-2CEB-45A2-AD91-7FAD66D720F5/uploads/Cain%20TODD.pdf |title=Imagination, Attitude and Experience in Aesthetic Judgement |first=Cain|last=Samuel Todd|work=Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics|date=April 2004}}</ref>

Since then Scruton has published ''The Aesthetics of Architecture'' (1979), ''The Aesthetic Understanding'' (1983 and 1997), ''The Aesthetics of Music'' (1997), and ''Beauty'' (2010). In 2008 a two-day conference was held at [[Durham University]] to assess his impact in the field, and in 2012 a collection of essays, ''Scruton's Aesthetics'', was published by Palgrave Macmillan.<ref>[http://www.dur.ac.uk/philosophy/events/conferences/scrutonaesthetics/ "Scruton's Aesthetics"], Department of Philosophy, Durham University, 6 November 2012; Hamilton, Andy; Zangwill, Nick. ''Scruton's Aesthetics'', London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.</ref>

In an [[Intelligence Squared]] debate in March 2009, Scruton (seconding historian [[David Starkey]]) proposed the motion: "Britain has become indifferent to beauty" by holding an image of [[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli]]'s ''[[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|The Birth of Venus]]'' next to one of the supermodel [[Kate Moss]].<ref>Bayley, Stephen. [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/mar/22/national-trust-intelligence-squad "Has Britain become indifferent to beauty?], ''The Guardian'', 22 March 2009.</ref> Later that year Scruton wrote and presented a [[BBC Two]] documentary, ''[[Why Beauty Matters]]'', in which he argued that beauty should be restored to its traditional position in art, architecture and music.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p6tsd |title=Why Beauty Matters |publisher=BBC |date=28 November 2009}}</ref> He wrote that he had received "more than 500 e-mails from viewers, all but one saying, 'Thank Heavens someone is saying what needs to be said'".<ref>{{cite web |last=Scruton |first=Roger |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100519110549/http://spectator.org/archives/2010/05/17/on-defending-beauty |title=On Defending Beauty |work=The American Spectator |date=May 2010}}</ref>

===Arguments for conservatism===
{{Conservatism sidebar}}
Scruton is best known for his writing in support of conservatism.<ref>Freeman, Samuel. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/04/21/enemies-of-roger-scruton/ "The Enemies of Roger Scruton"], ''New York Review of Books'', 21 April 2016.</ref> His second book, ''The Meaning of Conservatism'' (1980)—which he called "a somewhat [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegelian]] defence of Tory values in the face of their betrayal by the free marketeers"<ref name=Scruton2005p51>''Gentle Regrets'', 51.</ref>—was responsible, he said, for blighting his academic career.<ref name=Edemariam/><ref>Norman, Jesse. [http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/09/how-to-be-a-conservative-by-roger-scruton-book-review/ "Passion, authority and the odd mini-rant: Scruton’s conservative vision"], ''The Spectator'', 27 September 2014.</ref>

He wrote in ''Gentle Regrets'' (2005) that he found several of [[Edmund Burke]]'s arguments in ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (1790) persuasive. Although Burke was writing about revolution, not socialism, Scruton was persuaded that, as he put it, the utopian promises of socialism are accompanied by an abstract vision of the mind that bears little relation to the way most people think. Burke also convinced him that there is no direction to history, no moral or spiritual progress; that people think collectively toward a common goal only during crises such as war, and that trying to organize society this way requires a real or imagined enemy; hence, Scruton wrote, the strident tone of socialist literature.<ref name=Regretsp40/>

Scruton further argued, following Burke, that society is held together by authority and the [[rule of law]], in the sense of the right to obedience, not by the imagined rights of citizens. Obedience, he wrote, is "the prime virtue of political beings, the disposition that makes it possible to govern them, and without which societies crumble into 'the dust and powder of individuality'". Real freedom, Scruton wrote, does not stand in conflict with obedience, but is its other side.<ref name=Regretsp40>''Gentle Regrets'', 40–41.</ref> He was also persuaded by Burke's arguments about the [[social contract]], including that most parties to the contract are either dead or not yet born. To forget this, he wrote—to throw away customs and institutions—is to "place the present members of society in a dictatorial dominance over those who went before, and those who came after them".<ref>''Gentle Regrets'', 43.</ref>

Scruton argued that beliefs that appear to be examples of prejudice may be useful and important: "our most necessary beliefs may be both unjustified and unjustifiable, from our own perspective, and the attempt to justify them will merely lead to their loss." A prejudice in favour of [[modesty]] in women and [[chivalry]] in men, for example, may aid the stability of sexual relationships and the raising of children, although these are not offered as reasons in support of the prejudice. It may therefore be easy to show the prejudice as irrational, but there will be a loss nonetheless if it is discarded.<ref>''Gentle Regrets'', 42.</ref> Scruton has been critical of the contemporary [[Feminism|feminist]] movement, while reserving praise for suffragists such as [[Mary Wollstonecraft]].<ref name=Edemariam/>

[[File:Nexus Masterclass Roger Scruton, November 2015.webm|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Scruton discussing the [[European Union]] and the [[nation state]], November 2015]]
In ''Arguments for Conservatism'' (2006), he marked out the areas in which philosophical thinking is required if conservatism is to be intellectually persuasive. He argued that human beings are creatures of limited and local affections. Territorial loyalty is at the root of all forms of government where law and liberty reign supreme; every expansion of jurisdiction beyond the frontiers of the nation state leads to a decline in accountability.<ref>Scruton, Roger. ''A Political Philosophy: Arguments for Conservatism'', London: Bloomsbury, 2006, 3, 19.</ref>

He opposed elevating the "nation" above its people, which would threaten rather than facilitate citizenship and peace. "Conservatism and conservation" are two aspects of a single policy, that of husbanding resources, including the [[social capital]] embodied in laws, customs and institutions, and the material capital contained in the environment. He argued further that the law should not be used as a weapon to advance special interests. People impatient for reform—for example in the areas of [[euthanasia]] or [[abortion]]—are reluctant to accept what may be "glaringly obvious to others—that the law exists precisely to impede their ambitions".<ref>''Arguments for Conservatism'', 15, 34, 69.</ref>

He defined [[post-modernism]] as the claim that there are no grounds for truth, objectivity, and meaning, and therefore conflicts between views are nothing more than contests of power, and argued that, while the West is required to judge other cultures in their own terms, Western culture is adversely judged as ethnocentric and racist. He wrote: "The very reasoning which sets out to destroy the ideas of objective truth and absolute value imposes political correctness as absolutely binding, and cultural relativism as objectively true."<ref>''Arguments for Conservatism'', 106, 115, 117.</ref>

===Religion and totalitarianism===
Scruton contends, following [[Immanuel Kant]], that human beings have a transcendental dimension, a sacred core exhibited in their capacity for [[self-reflection]].<ref>Dooley, Mark. ''Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach''. Continuum, 2009, 12, 42.</ref> He argues that we are in an era of secularization without precedent in the history of the world; writers and artists such as [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Edward Hopper]] and [[Arnold Schoenberg]] "devoted much energy to recuperating the experience of the sacred—but as a private rather than a public form of consciousness." Because these thinkers directed their art at the few, he writes, it has never appealed to the many.<ref name=Arguments142>''Arguments for Conservatism'', 142–143, 146–147, 150–153.</ref>

He defines totalitarianism as the absence of any constraint on central authority, with every aspect of life the concern of government. Advocates of totalitarianism feed on resentment, Scruton argues, and having seized power they proceed to abolish institutions—such as the law, property, and religion—that create authorities. Scruton writes, "To the resentful it is these institutions that are the cause of inequality, and therefore the cause of their humiliations and failures." He argues that revolutions are not conducted from below by the people, but from above, in the name of the people, by an aspiring elite.<ref name=Arguments142/>

Scruton suggests that the importance of [[Newspeak]] in totalitarian societies is that the power of language to describe reality is replaced by language whose purpose is to avoid encounters with realities. He agrees with [[:fr:Alain Besançon|Alain Besançon]] that the totalitarian society envisaged by [[George Orwell]] in ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (1949) can be only understood in theological terms, as a society founded on a transcendental negation. In accordance with T. S. Eliot, Scruton believes that true originality is only possible within a tradition, and that it is precisely in modern conditions—conditions of fragmentation, heresy, and unbelief—that the conservative project acquires its sense.<ref>''Arguments for Conservatism'', 162–163, 182, 194.</ref>

Scruton considers that religion plays a basic function in "endarkening" human minds. "Endarkenment" is Scruton's way of describing the process of socialization through which certain behaviours and choices are closed off and forbidden to the subject, which he considers necessary to curb socially damaging impulses and behaviour.<ref>Ireland, P. "Endarkening the mind: Roger Scruton and the power of law", ''Social & Legal Studies'', 6(1), 1997, 51.</ref><ref name=Stafford1991/>

===Sex===
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[[Jonathan Dollimore]] wrote that Scruton's ''[[Sexual Desire (book)|Sexual Desire]]'' (1986) based a conservative sexual ethic on the Hegelian proposition that "the final end of every rational being is the building of the self", which involves recognizing the other as an end in itself. Scruton argues that the major feature of perversion is "sexual release that avoids or abolishes the ''other''", which he sees as [[narcissistic]] and [[solipsistic]].<ref name=Dollimore260>[[Dollimore, Jonathan]]. ''Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault''. Oxford University Press, 1991, 260–261.</ref> [[Martha Nussbaum]] argued that Scruton did not apply his principle of otherness equally—for example, to sexual relationships between adults and children.<ref>Nussbaum, Martha. [https://newrepublic.com/article/69203/the-passion-fashion "The Passion Fashion"], ''The New Republic'', 10 September 2009.</ref> He argued in an essay, "Sexual morality and the liberal consensus" (1989), that [[homosexuality]] is a perversion because the body of the homosexual's lover belongs to the same category as his own.<ref>Scruton, Roger. ''The Philosopher on Dover Beach''. Carcanet Press Limited, 1990, 268.</ref>

Scruton argued further that gays have no children and consequently no interest in creating a socially stable future. He therefore considered it justified to "instil in our children feelings of revulsion" towards homosexuality,<ref name=Stafford1991>Stafford, J. Martin. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00372432 "The two minds of Roger Scruton"], ''Studies in Philosophy and Education'', 11(2), 1991, 187–193. {{doi|10.1007/BF00372432}}</ref> and in 2007 he challenged the assumption that gays should have the right to adopt.<ref>Scruton, Roger. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3636798/This-right-for-gays-is-an-injustice-to-children.html "This 'right' for gays is an injustice to children"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 28 January 2007.</ref> Scruton told ''The Guardian'' in 2010 that he would no longer defend the view that revulsion against homosexuality can be justified.<ref name=Edemariam>Edemariam, Aida. [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/jun/05/roger-scruton-interview "Roger Scruton: A pessimist's guide to life"], ''The Guardian'', 5 June 2010.</ref>

== Selected works ==
{{refbegin|2}}
'''Nonfiction'''
* ''Art And Imagination: A Study in the Philosophy of Mind'' (1974)
* ''The Aesthetics of Architecture'' (1979)
* ''The Meaning of Conservatism'' (1980)
* ''The Politics of Culture and Other Essays'' (1981)
* ''A Short History of Modern Philosophy'' (1982)
* ''A Dictionary of Political Thought'' (1982)
* ''The Aesthetic Understanding: Essays in the Philosophy of Art and Culture'' (1983)
* ''Kant'' (1982)
* ''Untimely Tracts'' (1985)
* ''[[Thinkers of the New Left]]'' (1985)
* ''[[Sexual Desire (book)|Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic]]'' (1986)
* ''Spinoza'' (1987)
* ''A Land Held Hostage: Lebanon and the West'' (1987)
* ''Conservative Thinkers: Essays from The Salisbury Review'' (1988)
* ''Conservative Thoughts: Essays from The Salisbury Review'' (1988)
* ''The Philosopher on Dover Beach: Essays'' (1990)
* ''Conservative Texts: An Anthology'' (ed.) (1992)
* ''Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey'' (1994)
* ''The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism'' (1995)
* ''An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy'' (1996); republished as ''Philosophy: Principles and Problems'' (2005)
* ''The Aesthetics of Music'' (1997)
* ''On Hunting'' (1998)
* ''An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture'' (1998); republished as ''Modern Culture'' (2005)
* ''Spinoza'' (1998)
* ''England: An Elegy'' (2001)
* ''The West and the Rest: Globalisation and the Terrorist Threat'' (2002)
* ''Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde'' (Oxford University Press, 2004)
* ''News From Somewhere: On Settling'' (2004)
* ''The Need for Nations'' (2004)
* ''Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life'' (Continuum, 2005)
* ''Animal Rights and Wrongs'' (2006)
* ''A Political Philosophy: Arguments for Conservatism'' (2006)
* ''Immigration, Multiculturalism and the Need to Defend the Nation State'' (2006)
* ''Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged'' (Encounter Books, 2007)
* ''Beauty'' (2009)
* ''I Drink Therefore I Am: A Philosopher's Guide to Wine'' (2009)
* ''Understanding Music'' (2009)
* ''The Uses of Pessimism: And the Danger of False Hope'' (2010)
* ''Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously About the Planet'' (2011); revised and republished as ''How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism'' (2012)
* ''The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures'' (2012)
* ''Our Church: A Personal History of the Church of England'' (2012)
* ''[[The Soul of the World]]'' (2014)
* ''[[How to Be a Conservative]]'' (2014)
* ''Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left'' (2015)
* ''The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung'' (2016)
* ''Confessions of a Heretic: Selected Essays'' (2017)

'''Fiction'''
* ''Fortnight's Anger: a novel'' (1981)
* ''Francesca: a novel'' (1991)
* ''A Dove Descending and Other Stories'' (1991)
* ''Xanthippic Dialogues'' (1993)
* ''Perictione in Colophon: Reflections of the Aesthetic Way of Life'' (2000)
* ''[[Notes from Underground (Scruton novel)|Notes from Underground]]'' (2014)
* ''[[The Disappeared (novel)|The Disappeared]]'' (2015)

'''Opera'''
* ''The Minister'' (1994).
* ''[[Violet (opera)|Violet]]'' (2005)

'''Television'''
* ''[[Why Beauty Matters]]'' (BBC Two, 2009)
{{refend}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|25em}}

== Further reading==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.roger-scruton.com/ Roger Scruton's website]
* [http://www.spectator.co.uk/author/roger-scruton/ Roger Scruton's articles] at ''[[The Spectator]]''
* [http://www.newcriterion.com/author.cfm?mode=articles&authorid=85&CFID=339845445&CFTOKEN=27009753 Roger Scruton's articles] at [[The New Criterion]]
* [http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/roger-scruton Roger Scruton's articles] at [[OpenDemocracy.net|Open Democracy]]
* [http://www.salisburyreview.co.uk/The_Salisbury_Review_Front_Page.html ''The Salisbury Review'']
* [http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/gifford/2010/listen/ Recordings of the Gifford Lectures 2011–12] delivered by Scruton at the [[University of St Andrews]]
* [http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1180477/ Recordings of the 2011 Stanton Lectures] delivered by Scruton at the [[University of Cambridge]]
* Scruton, Roger. [http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_3_urbanities-animal.html "Animal Rights"], ''City Journal'', summer 2000.
* {{IMDb name|2497517}}
* [http://www.humanephilosophy.com/#!Mikolaj-S%C5%82awkowskiRode-Art-in-the-Life-of-Culture-and-Mankind-An-Interview-with-Roger-Scruton-/c1xyb/3668C9A1-8505-4FAC-8A9E-DC9B79C9C01A Interview with Roger Scruton for the Humane Philosophy Project]
* [http://regionsandcities.eu/2015/03/09/roger-scruton-local-communities-can-restore-europes-soul/ Interview with Roger Scruton for Regions and Cities of Europe]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150509104425/http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/roger_scruton Roger Scruton's wine articles], ''New Statesman'', October 2005 – August 2009.

'''Articles, books'''
* Dooley, Mark, ''The Roger Scruton Reader'', London & New York: Continuum, 2009.
* Billings, Joshua. [http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/a-joy-forever/ "A Joy Forever?"], review of Scruton's ''Beauty'', ''Oxonian Review'', 11 May 2009.
* Kimball, Roger. [https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/17/books/an-assault-on-mush.html "An Assault on Mush"], ''The New York Times'', 17 February 1991.
* Kimball, Roger. [http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Saving-the-Appearances--Roger-Scruton-on-Philosophy-1400 "Saving the Appearances: Roger Scruton on Philosophy"], ''The New Criterion'', June 1994.
* Scruton, Roger. "The Case against Feminism," ''The Observer'', 22 May 1983.
** Morrison, Blake. "In Defence of Feminism," ''The Observer'', 29 May 1983.
* Scruton, Roger. [http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-25/opinion/op-7210_1_margaret-thatcher/2 "Her Virtue Was Thatcher's Downfall"], ''Los Angeles Times'', 25 November 1990.
* Scruton, Roger. [http://www.aeonmagazine.com/world-views/roger-scruton-fake-culture/ "The Great Swindle,"] ''Aeon Magazine,'' 17 December 2012.