From: Jonathan Davis (jonathan.davis@lineone.net)
Date: Sat Sep 27 2003 - 05:59:17 MDT
Dear Hermit,
Here you have posted an article criticizing one of Scruton's books (Not the
one we are discussing). Is this an invite for me to post full Scruton
articles or the some pro-Scruton articles?
Let me know soonest, I have plenty.
For now let me offer some correctives to the spiteful bunk you have posted,
but looking at reviews of more relevant books. Keep in mind that even in the
article you posted it is noted in one quote that "Scruton himself is one of
Britain's most brilliant philosophers".
And we were talking about political philosophy.
The West and the Rest
The average Amazon review is the full 5 stars!
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Last seen riding cheerily to the hunt (On Hunting [BKL S 1
01]), English philosopher Scruton turns to Islamic terrorism and the war
against it, illuminating them by contrasting the West and Islam. The West
has consisted of territorial nations, each defined by language and a legal
system. Islam, however, is universal (hence, "the rest"--and more), bound
together by the Arabic of the Koran and Islamic law. The West's religion,
Christianity, discriminates sacred and secular realms of authority; Islam
doesn't, regarding secular arrangements as conveniences, at best, and
ultimately accepting no territorial state. Westerners' loyalties
historically have been national-territorial; Muslim loyalty is
nonterritorial--to Islam. The increasingly tolerant and multicultural West
brims with evil in devout Muslims' eyes, which see Western-style globalism
as sufficiently terrifying to justify such Muslims as the Ayatollah Khomeini
and the destroyers of the World Trade Center in taking advantage of Western
mores to mount reactive strikes against the West. Scruton concludes that
U.S. retaliation against artificial, Western-created Muslim nations, and
Israel's against Palestinian Muslims (and, inadvertently, Christians)
supposedly controlled by Yasir Arafat, wrongly presume that borders and
politicians control Islam. There is much more meat in Scruton's concentrated
argument, which concludes not by suggesting how to fight terrorism
successfully but by urging the West to reexamine its prejudices about
immigration, multiculturalism, free trade, and religion. Ray Olson
Copyright C American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text
refers to the Hardcover edition.
"While America's political arena is still dominated by those two tiresome
creatures, the 'liberal' and the 'conservative,' Roger Scruton gives you
reason to envy the Brits. He's a plain-talking philosopher and writer who
confounds attempts at categorization. A man of culture and sophistication..
He's a conservative who is at his best making clear-cut distinctions, yet
his thinking and language are nuanced and open. He enters enthusiastically
into discussions on such old-fashioned topics as beauty, goodness and
religion, yet there's nothing tweedy about his work. He looks on the
conditions that markets create as warily as the most jaundiced lefty."-Ray
Sawhill, Salon
Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey
Roger Scruton offers a wide-ranging perspective on philosophy, from logic to
aesthetics, in a lively and engaging way that is sure to stimulate debate.
Rather than producing a survey of an academic discipline, Scruton reclaims
philosophy for worldly concerns.
This extensive survey of topics in modern philosophy as taught in
English-speaking universities consists of two parts, about 500 and 100
pages, respectively. The former is the text that presents the ideas, theses,
and arguments themselves; and the latter is a study guide that elucidates
details, suggests topics for discussion, and names readings that expand the
main text. The book is clearly written and well proportioned.
Modern Philosophy succeeds in inspiring readers to explore the topic
further, because one senses in Scruton the mark of the true thinker, a deep
sincerity and conviction' Alain de Botton - Daily Telegraph
'Scruton is a masterly writer; his book is a paradigm of lucidity' A.C.
Grayling - Financial Times
'Anyone interested in philosophy should read this book', Nicholas Bagnall -
Sunday Telegraph
A remarkably rich smorgasbord',Oliver Letwin - The Times
'Invaluable', Frederic Raphael - Sunday Times
On "A short History of Modern Philosophy"
From Descartes to Wittgenstein in less than three hundred pages is a
formidable assignment, especially when ethics, aesthetics, social and
political philosophy do not pass unnoticed, so that room has to be found for
Shaftesbury, Butler, and Marx as well as for metaphysicians and
epistemologists. Scholarly severity in judgement would be out of place from
a reviewer who has regularly refused to embark upon any such project as far
too difficult. That Roger Scruton oversimplifies, boldly assumes what
scholars have seriously questioned, is guilty of sins of omission and
commission, is sometimes too compressed to be either wholly accurate or
immediately intelligible - all this can be taken for granted, as inevitable
from the very nature of his task. Nevertheless, . . . a reader will not
have wasted his time. Scruton will have introduced him to many interesting
philosophers in a manner which is often quirky and opinionated but is only
occasionally boring. It is easy to conceive a better book. It would not be
so easy to write it.' John Passmore - Times Literary Supplement.
'The book is useful rather than startling; it is not merely useful, since Dr
Scruton writes with an unusual clarity and fluency, and is always a pleasure
to read, and it is a book in which firm judgments are not eschewed....
This is certainly a book which you could give to anyone who was curious
about philosophy and expect them to learn a lot from it; and any prospective
student of philosophy would be very much better off with it than with say,
Russell's History of Western Philosophy.
zivotopis
The homage which Russell paid to the impossibility of his task was to write
like a gossip columnist; Scruton's is to do it plainly, seriously and
sensibly, it's less fun, but it's nearer the truth. Alan Ryan, Times Higher
Educational Supplement.
That is just 2 books of over 30. I will happily post the rest...
Regards
Jonathan
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