The Uses Of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope by Roger Scruton

[Philosophy Now]

Roger Caldwell scrutinizes Scruton.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/82/The ... er_Scruton

[marjoram_blues]

Excerpt from article:

Roger Scruton has presented himself in many guises: as the proponent of a Conservative political philosophy, as an aesthetician concerned with architecture and music, and latterly as an elegist of old England and a celebrator of rural life, foxhunting and wine. In his latest book Scruton again presents himself as a political philosopher. In this guise in former days he drew opprobrium to himself as a Thatcherite. There is a certain irony in this, in that drawing on a tradition of conservative political philosophy which embraced Burke, Hegel and Oakeshott, Scruton owed little or nothing to Thatcher, and she in turn owed little or nothing to him.

Scruton earlier offered a re-vamped account of his conservatism in A Political Philosophy (2006), and his most recent book, The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope builds and develops on this account, not without some re-packaging of familiar Scrutonian themes. It comes as no surprise that he is a supporter of “hierarchy, discipline, and order
...
In many ways Scruton is a sort of utopian in reverse. If the political messianists want to take us to places that never will, or could, exist (and with disastrous consequences), then Scruton wants to return us to a forgotten Eden of the past – likewise as much a fantasy – where all was ceremony, grace, and where everyone knew their place in a benign ordering of things. Whatever the charms of this vision, it is a devastating failure of realism, and no foundation for a viable political philosophy.

© Roger Caldwell 2010
https://philosophynow.org/issues/82/The ... er_Scruton

So, in a nutshell - Scruton is an old-fashioned, opinionated writer who revamps and re-packages same old themes. No surprises and no deep thinking involved.

[uwot]

So, in a nutshell - Scruton is an old-fashioned, opinionated writer who revamps and re-packages same old themes. No surprises and no deep thinking involved.

It really isn't my field, but it seems to me that all this yearning for some idealised or imagined bygone age (the Garden of Eden, L'age d'or, they don't make 'em like they used to, etc.) is just infantilism, or at least a nostalgia for youth and innocence. I'm no Freudian, but it could be that Scruton is just grumpy because he can no longer suck his mother's tits.

[tbieter]

Excerpt from article:

Roger Scruton has presented himself in many guises: as the proponent of a Conservative political philosophy, as an aesthetician concerned with architecture and music, and latterly as an elegist of old England and a celebrator of rural life, foxhunting and wine. In his latest book Scruton again presents himself as a political philosopher. In this guise in former days he drew opprobrium to himself as a Thatcherite. There is a certain irony in this, in that drawing on a tradition of conservative political philosophy which embraced Burke, Hegel and Oakeshott, Scruton owed little or nothing to Thatcher, and she in turn owed little or nothing to him.

Scruton earlier offered a re-vamped account of his conservatism in A Political Philosophy (2006), and his most recent book, The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope builds and develops on this account, not without some re-packaging of familiar Scrutonian themes. It comes as no surprise that he is a supporter of “hierarchy, discipline, and order
...
In many ways Scruton is a sort of utopian in reverse. If the political messianists want to take us to places that never will, or could, exist (and with disastrous consequences), then Scruton wants to return us to a forgotten Eden of the past – likewise as much a fantasy – where all was ceremony, grace, and where everyone knew their place in a benign ordering of things. Whatever the charms of this vision, it is a devastating failure of realism, and no foundation for a viable political philosophy.

© Roger Caldwell 2010
https://philosophynow.org/issues/82/The ... er_Scruton

So, in a nutshell - Scruton is an old-fashioned, opinionated writer who revamps and re-packages same old themes. No surprises and no deep thinking involved.

This morning I finished reading Scruton's How to be a Conservative.

This afternoon I read Caldwell's review. I'm dubious of his assessment of Scruton"s philosophical competence.

Finally, I've just ordered this book for my Amazon Fire tablet.
http://www.amazon.com/Roger-Scruton-Phi ... 8&qid=&sr=