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.
