Our First Year without Roger Scruton

“At his best, Scruton was a panoramic thinker of formidable intellect who puts to shame many of the lesser polemicists who have followed in his giant footsteps.”

Introduction

It has now been one year since Roger Scruton, the greatest conservative philosopher of his generation, passed away. As a liberal socialist, I have naturally had many critical things to say about Scruton, especially when he allowed his cantankerous nature to become a barrier to his considerable talents. Scruton was also, unfortunately, prone to offering bad commentary about Muslims and homosexuality, which is unworthy of him at his best. However, he was, undoubtedly, a remarkable man and a formidable adversary to leftists, who was capable of absorbing and writing with grace and salt about a wide variety of topics. At his best, Scruton was a panoramic thinker of formidable intellect who puts to shame many of the lesser polemicists who have followed in his giant footsteps.

In this short review, I want to briefly discuss what I think is his best book: his 2014 work The Soul of the World. Interestingly, this is also his least overtly political text. It is largely a work of pure philosophy that offers critical takes on reductive scientific materialism and the religious consequences many draw from this worldview. In the conclusion of this piece, I will also provide some closing thoughts linking The Soul of the World to Scruton’s other work and his politics. However, it is important to recognize that readers from across the political spectrum can find insights and edification in its pages.

The Problem With Scientific Materialism

“To explain religion in terms of its reproductive function is to leave unexplained and indeed unperceived the central core of the phenomenon, which is the religious thought—the aboutness of the urge to sacrifice, of the need to worship and obey, of the trepidation of the one who approaches holy and forbidden things and who prays for their permission.”