Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach: An Intellectual Biography

Dooley, Mark

ISBN 10: 1847060137 / ISBN 13: 9781847060136

Published by Continuum, 2009

The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002018428

Synopsis:

Roger Scruton is one of the outstanding British philosophers of the post-war years. Why then is he at best ignored and at worst reviled? Part of the reason is that he is an unapologetic conservative in the tradition of Edmund Burke. That conservative instinct was sharpened during the Paris riots of 1968. From that point on Scruton set himself the task of stridently opposing what he has since termed 'the culture of repudiation'. In so doing he targeted liberals in the tradition of Russell and Mill, existentialists like Sartre and post modernists in the fashion of Foucault.

Here is a brilliant description of Scruton's life and work and a careful analysis of his central ideas. Scruton defends an Hegelian and Burkean view of human nature, one founded on allegiance to the State as the guarantor of tangible freedom. He thus opposes any and all variations of the social contract theory, liberal or existential individualism or philosophical theories of the 'authentic' self in isolation from its kind. In recent years his conservative notion of the nation state has been used to reflect upon and criticise the European Union, the United Nations and the idea that the Middle East can be reformed along Western democratic lines.

Scruton, argues the author of this book, is the one British intellectual who has courageously rowed against the tide of liberal conviction and has arrived at political conclusions the truth of which are becoming more and more obvious. This book argues conclusively that Roger Scruton is a prophet for our times.

About the Author: Mark Dooley is an Irish philosopher, author and journalist who has taught at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and at University College Dublin where he was John Henry Newman Scholar in Theology. He has been a columnist for both the Sunday Independent and the Irish Daily Mail, and is currently a Contributing Editor to The European Conservative magazine. His many books include The Roger Scruton Reader, Why Be a Catholic?, Moral Matters: A Philosophy of Homecoming, and Conversations with Roger Scruton, all published by Bloomsbury. In 2022, he edited and published Against the Tide: The Best of Roger Scruton's Columns, Commentaries and Criticism. He is Sir Roger Scruton's literary executor. Sir Roger Scruton was widely seen as one of the greatest conservative thinkers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and a polymath who wrote a wide array of fiction, non-fiction and reviews. He was the author of over 50 books.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover ...
Publisher: Continuum
Publication Date: 2009
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Very Good