Conversations with Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton is arguably the greatest living English philosopher. A prolific author of fifty books, composer of two operas, controversial columnist and academic dissident, he has stood at the heart of the intellectual life of Britain (and to some extent in the USA) for more than forty years. Mark Dooley is Scruton's intellectual biographer. In these conversations Dooley coaxes Scruton to speak candidly about those whom he has loved and loathed, about his early philosophical influences and about those who have shaped him personally and intellectually. Going deeper than any previous autobiographical statements by Scruton, this book reveals what motivated the philosopher to embrace Kant and Wagner, how he came to know and admire thinkers like Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe and Mary Midgely, and what he said to the underground seminars in Communist Czechoslovakia and the precise circumstances surrounding his arrest and expulsion from that country. It examines what Scruton really thinks of his intellectual and political adversaries and why he believes their message remains a recipe for social collapse. He provides answers as to why he left Birkbeck University College and why he eventually abandoned academia altogether. It also includes insights into daily life on Scruton's farm, his writing routines and his astonishing capacity to produce so prodigiously. Conversations with Roger Scruton asks questions which Roger Scruton has never answered before.

Cover; Contents; Preface; 1 Childhood and Cambridge; 2 Becoming a Philosopher; 3 Becoming a Conservative at Birkbeck; 4 Some Thoughts on British Philosophy; 5 Eastern Europe; 6 Why Architecture?; 7 Why Sex?; 8 Leaving Birkbeck for Boston; 9 Farming and Family; 10 Sinful Pleasures; 11 Rediscovering Religion; 12 Living as a Writer; 13 Making Music; 14 Acceptance; Afterword; Notes; Index