Roger Scruton

Sir
Roger Scruton
FBA FRSL
Scruton in 2016
Born
Roger Vernon Scruton

(1944-02-27)27 February 1944
Buslingthorpe, Lincolnshire, England
Died12 January 2020(2020-01-12) (aged 75)
South Kensington, London, England
Alma materJesus College, Cambridge (BA, MA, PhD)[1]
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • writer
Notable work
TelevisionWhy Beauty Matters (BBC Two, 2009)
Spouses
Danielle Laffitte
​
​
(m. 1973; div. 1979)​
Sophie Jeffreys
​
(m. 1996)​
Children2
Awards
Roger Scruton speaking
from the BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View, 11 August 2013.[4]
Philosophy career
Era
RegionWestern philosophy
School
Main interests
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Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox philosopher with unknown parameter "influences"
Websiteroger-scruton.com

Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, FBA, FRSL (/ˈskruːtən/; 27 February 1944 – 12 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of conservative views.[5][6][7]

Editor from 1982 to 2001 of The Salisbury Review, a conservative political journal, Scruton wrote over 50 books on philosophy, art, music, politics, literature, culture, sexuality, and religion; he also wrote novels and two operas. His publications include The Meaning of Conservatism (1980), Sexual Desire (1986), The Aesthetics of Music (1997), and How to Be a Conservative (2014). He was a regular contributor to the popular media, including The Times, The Spectator, and the New Statesman.

Scruton explained that he embraced conservatism after witnessing the May 1968 student protests in France.[8] From 1971 to 1992 he was lecturer, reader, and then Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, after which he was Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, from 1992 to 1995.[9] From then on, he worked as a freelance writer and scholar, though he later held several part-time or temporary academic positions, including in the United States.[10] In the 1980s he helped to establish underground academic networks in Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe, for which he was awarded the Czech Republic's Medal of Merit (First Class) by President Václav Havel in 1998.[11] Scruton was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for "services to philosophy, teaching and public education".[12]

  1. ^ "Scruton, Roger 1944– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  2. ^ Ascherson, Neal (6 November 1980). "Conservatives". London Review of Books. Vol. 02, no. 21. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  3. ^ Ryle, John (20 February 1986). "Being on top". London Review of Books. Vol. 08, no. 3. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Roger Scruton: Of the People, By the People 1/4". A Point of View. 11 August 2013. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  5. ^ Cowling, Maurice (1990). Mill and Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xxix.
  6. ^ Garnett, Mark; Hickson, Kevin (19 July 2013). "7 The traditionalists". Conservative thinkers. Manchester University Press. pp. 113–115. doi:10.7765/9781847792990. ISBN 978-1-84779-299-0.
  7. ^ "Roger Scruton". www.ralston.ac. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  8. ^ Scruton, Roger (February 2003). "Why I became a conservative". The New Criterion. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ O'Hear, Anthony (26 November 2020). "Scruton, Roger, 1944-2020" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy (XIX): 447–465.
  11. ^ Day, Barbara (1999). The Velvet Philosophers. London: The Claridge Press. 281–82.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference LondonGazette was invoked but never defined (see the help page).