RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Scruton, Roger. Against the Tide. Bloomsbury.
This is a collection of Sir Roger Scruton’s best editorials. To note, these are not precise argumentative pieces. They are generally short, witty, and to the point. The prose is magnificent. Imagine if G. K. Chesterton actually had something of substance to say.
Put a Cork in it
Corked wine slows down the pace of life.
Human Rights
Pace reactionary conservatism, human rights do in fact exist. The problem is trying to delineate something like “universal human rights.” A right not only implies a duty, but it also implies someone against whom a right is claimed. It is not clear how this works on the global scale. I have a duty to my neighbor. It’s not clear what kind of practical duty I can have to a Sherpa in Tibet.
On the Soul
Scruton defends some form of dualism. He is very clear that we should call it the soul, noting that cultural philistines call it “mind.” He interacts with John Searle’s famous Chinese room experiment. Though Searle was correct to rebut some hard forms of physicalism, his lack of belief in any sort of telos makes his dualism irrelevant to human life.
God and the New Atheists
Scruton employs something like Alvin Plantinga’s response to naturalism. Richard Dawkins, the New Atheist, argues, or rather asserts, that religion is like a meme. It replicates itself. Here is where it gets interesting. In terms of evolutionary theory, false “memes,” like false maths, do not survive. Religion, for better or worse, is surviving. It has survived, even thrived, for quite some time.
Education and Sociology
Scruton defends what are called “the irrelevant subjects.” Earlier custodians of the British Empire studied logic, Greek, and Latin and successfully managed the greatest empire in history. What they studied developed the mind and soul, yet was largely irrelevant to “practical matters.” We have reversed the situation today.
He has a hilarious chapter on a mock dialogue between two sociologists from the BBC.
Architecture
The current fad of “function over form” guarantees neither. Modern buildings are ugly, and for that reason non-functional. Most urban planning projects look like bombed out war zones. They are not functional for the main reason that no one wants to live there.
Animal Rights
If you want to promote the well-being of animals, hunt and eat them. Hunting animals guarantees the preservation of their ecosystem.
Bon Mots
As with all of Sir Roger’s writing, we are treated to devastating one liners.
“Sociology takes legitimate relations–Lover/Beloved, Employee/Employer–and turns them into power structures.”
“The pit bull terrier will go most of his life before turning on and killing his owner, much to the delight of everyone else. Unfortunately, it also wants to kill everyone else.”
Conclusion
Because Sir Roger’s prose is so fine, one is tempted to let it wash over himself. That in itself is a worthy endeavor, but one should not miss the cogency of the argument for the beauty of the prose.
This is a collection of Sir Roger Scruton’s best editorials. To note, these are not precise argumentative pieces. They are generally short, witty, and to the point. The prose is magnificent. Imagine if G. K. Chesterton actually had something of substance to say.
Put a Cork in it
Corked wine slows down the pace of life.
Human Rights
Pace reactionary conservatism, human rights do in fact exist. The problem is trying to delineate something like “universal human rights.” A right not only implies a duty, but it also implies someone against whom a right is claimed. It is not clear how this works on the global scale. I have a duty to my neighbor. It’s not clear what kind of practical duty I can have to a Sherpa in Tibet.
On the Soul
Scruton defends some form of dualism. He is very clear that we should call it the soul, noting that cultural philistines call it “mind.” He interacts with John Searle’s famous Chinese room experiment. Though Searle was correct to rebut some hard forms of physicalism, his lack of belief in any sort of telos makes his dualism irrelevant to human life.
God and the New Atheists
Scruton employs something like Alvin Plantinga’s response to naturalism. Richard Dawkins, the New Atheist, argues, or rather asserts, that religion is like a meme. It replicates itself. Here is where it gets interesting. In terms of evolutionary theory, false “memes,” like false maths, do not survive. Religion, for better or worse, is surviving. It has survived, even thrived, for quite some time.
Education and Sociology
Scruton defends what are called “the irrelevant subjects.” Earlier custodians of the British Empire studied logic, Greek, and Latin and successfully managed the greatest empire in history. What they studied developed the mind and soul, yet was largely irrelevant to “practical matters.” We have reversed the situation today.
He has a hilarious chapter on a mock dialogue between two sociologists from the BBC.
Architecture
The current fad of “function over form” guarantees neither. Modern buildings are ugly, and for that reason non-functional. Most urban planning projects look like bombed out war zones. They are not functional for the main reason that no one wants to live there.
Animal Rights
If you want to promote the well-being of animals, hunt and eat them. Hunting animals guarantees the preservation of their ecosystem.
Bon Mots
As with all of Sir Roger’s writing, we are treated to devastating one liners.
“Sociology takes legitimate relations–Lover/Beloved, Employee/Employer–and turns them into power structures.”
“The pit bull terrier will go most of his life before turning on and killing his owner, much to the delight of everyone else. Unfortunately, it also wants to kill everyone else.”
Conclusion
Because Sir Roger’s prose is so fine, one is tempted to let it wash over himself. That in itself is a worthy endeavor, but one should not miss the cogency of the argument for the beauty of the prose.
