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An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy
"Philosophy's the 'love of wisdom', can be approached in two by doing it, or by studying how it has been done," so writes the eminent philosopher Roger Scruton. In this user-friendly book, he chooses to introduce philosophy by doing it. Taking the discipline beyond theory and "intellectualism," he presents it in an empirical, accessible, and practical light. The result is not a history of the field but a vivid, energetic, and personal account to guide the reader making his or her own venture into philosophy. Addressing a range of subjects from freedom, God, reality, and morality, to sex, music, and history, Scruton argues philosophy's relevance not just to intellectual questions, but to contemporary life.
177 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
126 people are currently reading
1172 people want to read
About the author
Roger Scruton
139 books1,345 followersSir Roger Scruton was a writer and philosopher who has published more than forty books in philosophy, aesthetics and politics. He was a fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He taught in both England and America and was a Visiting Professor at Department of Philosophy and Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, he was also a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington D.C.
In 2015 he published two books, The Disappeared and later in the autumn, Fools Frauds and Firebrands. Fools Frauds and Firebrands is an update of Thinkers of the New Left published, to widespread outrage, in 1986. It includes new chapters covering Lacan, Deleuze and Badiou and some timely thoughts about the historians and social thinkers who led British intellectuals up the garden path during the last decades, including Eric Hobsbawm and Ralph Miliband.
In 2016 he again published two books, Confessions of A Heretic (a collection of essays) and The Ring of Truth, about Wagner’s Ring cycle, which was widely and favourably reviewed. In 2017 he published On Human Nature (Princeton University Press), which was again widely reviewed, and contains a distillation of his philosophy. He also published a response to Brexit, Where We Are (Bloomsbury).
In 2015 he published two books, The Disappeared and later in the autumn, Fools Frauds and Firebrands. Fools Frauds and Firebrands is an update of Thinkers of the New Left published, to widespread outrage, in 1986. It includes new chapters covering Lacan, Deleuze and Badiou and some timely thoughts about the historians and social thinkers who led British intellectuals up the garden path during the last decades, including Eric Hobsbawm and Ralph Miliband.
In 2016 he again published two books, Confessions of A Heretic (a collection of essays) and The Ring of Truth, about Wagner’s Ring cycle, which was widely and favourably reviewed. In 2017 he published On Human Nature (Princeton University Press), which was again widely reviewed, and contains a distillation of his philosophy. He also published a response to Brexit, Where We Are (Bloomsbury).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
October 17, 2016
About 75% of this book was within my mental grasp after one reading, which is about where a work of philosophy ought to be. I felt challenged but not overwhelmed. I strongly recommend this book.
The following summary is my impressionistic take, and may be more influenced by my own interests and understanding than Scruton's intent. However, I'm pretty sure I'm right. Still, a disclaimer is needed: I'm in a little over my head here.
This is not really a historical survey of Western thought. Scruton focuses on what he sees as the big preoccupation of philosophy: the problem of subjectivity. Each of us experiences the world as an "I". We see a clear difference between ourselves and other material objects, yet the nature of this difference is a mystery. We infer the personhood of others and feel a powerful urge to connect with them, but our limited awareness imposes a barrier. How did an impersonal universe give rise to persons? Or is the personal some kind of mass delusion?
The most interesting of Scruton's conclusions (based, if I remember correctly, on Kant) is that the idea of an almighty, holy, personal God solves the dilemma of personhood in a way that nothing else can. Therefore, this idea is not some arbitrary "fairy tale" but rather an inevitable development.
This is not the same thing as showing the idea is true, as Scruton acknowledges. If the universe is fundamentally absurd, it might well lead us to insane conclusions. Still, as Scruton shows, Theism and its attendant virtues--holiness, honor, piety, humility, benevolence, joy, love--demand a kind of respect that some (but not all!) atheists fail to give, to their detriment.
This book adds to my motivation to grapple with Nietzsche, whose writings I've barely touched. His solution to the problem of self and its isolation was a radical embrace of the self's isolation (for the übermenschen able to pull it off). I could say more, but until I reread Scruton (or read Nietzsche) I'm afraid my description will be off-track.
I will be reading this book again; with any luck, I'm make revisiting it a regular event. Meanwhile--on to Nietzsche!
The following summary is my impressionistic take, and may be more influenced by my own interests and understanding than Scruton's intent. However, I'm pretty sure I'm right. Still, a disclaimer is needed: I'm in a little over my head here.
This is not really a historical survey of Western thought. Scruton focuses on what he sees as the big preoccupation of philosophy: the problem of subjectivity. Each of us experiences the world as an "I". We see a clear difference between ourselves and other material objects, yet the nature of this difference is a mystery. We infer the personhood of others and feel a powerful urge to connect with them, but our limited awareness imposes a barrier. How did an impersonal universe give rise to persons? Or is the personal some kind of mass delusion?
The most interesting of Scruton's conclusions (based, if I remember correctly, on Kant) is that the idea of an almighty, holy, personal God solves the dilemma of personhood in a way that nothing else can. Therefore, this idea is not some arbitrary "fairy tale" but rather an inevitable development.
This is not the same thing as showing the idea is true, as Scruton acknowledges. If the universe is fundamentally absurd, it might well lead us to insane conclusions. Still, as Scruton shows, Theism and its attendant virtues--holiness, honor, piety, humility, benevolence, joy, love--demand a kind of respect that some (but not all!) atheists fail to give, to their detriment.
This book adds to my motivation to grapple with Nietzsche, whose writings I've barely touched. His solution to the problem of self and its isolation was a radical embrace of the self's isolation (for the übermenschen able to pull it off). I could say more, but until I reread Scruton (or read Nietzsche) I'm afraid my description will be off-track.
I will be reading this book again; with any luck, I'm make revisiting it a regular event. Meanwhile--on to Nietzsche!
September 6, 2023
Um ensaio sobre filosofia. Dividido em 12 capítulos desde a liberdade, a história, a música, a moral, etc, Roger Scruton leva-nos pela mão nestas 12 aulas, umas bem conseguidas, outras evidenciado seguramente as minhas limitações, num modelo compactado o que pode ser visto como um guia para se entender as preocupações da filosofia do passado milénio.
Um livro que ainda que não actual, nos dá pistas para a forma como o pensamento filosófico se constituiu e chegou aos contorbados dias de hoje.
Um livro que ainda que não actual, nos dá pistas para a forma como o pensamento filosófico se constituiu e chegou aos contorbados dias de hoje.
April 8, 2018
I was recently thinking about the anti-intellectualism of conservatives nowadays and googled conservative intellectuals to find some possible new writers. Unfortunately, google gave me several Ann Coulter types and people who blog about feminazis and libtards. There was a British dude named Roger Scruton though and I checked him out. While not an overtly political book, Scruton gives intellectually stimulating reasons for conservative (using the definition 'to keep the same') values such as piety, duty, and morality. He also deftly attacks post-modernism and the historical imperative of Marx and his followers. The book starts slowly while discussing general principles and gets better and better as he covers issues that are much harder to philosophize on like freedom, sex and music. Good book for philosophy junkies, great book for people who'd like to be.
September 20, 2021
While Scruton is normally too much of a conservative fuddy-duddy for me, this introduction to the problems of philosophy is an honest rival to Russell's. I daresay Scruton's was a better read. This book comes from a whole series, atrociously named, "An Intelligent Person's Guide to ...." [ethics, art, making breakfast, etc., etc.] Others such as Mary Warnock have contributed volumes to it.
June 9, 2012
A good book but a terrible title! There is a moment where he talks about "a way back to a human world". Now that would be a good title!
November 9, 2014
Mmm... no, non sono un tipo intelligente. Non per i parametri di Scruton, quantomeno.
La storia della filosofia che si studia al liceo non ti prepara alla vera filosofia, specialmente a quella moderna e contemporanea. Oltre che mia considerazione è anche una delle affermazioni con cui Scruton apre la dissertazione. Seguono 12 capitoli si 12 importanti questioni filosofiche: perché; la verità; il demone; soggetto e oggetto; le persone; il tempo, dio; la libertà; la moralità; il sesso: la musica: la storia. L'unico che non ho davvero capito è quello sulla musica, non avendo un'educazione formale in merito. Il resto è comprensibile, con un po' di attenzione.
C'è però una pecca: la filosofia va discussa, e purtroppo non poso fare domande od obiezioni a un libro. Preferirei imparare immersa in uno scenario stile accademia platonica.
La storia della filosofia che si studia al liceo non ti prepara alla vera filosofia, specialmente a quella moderna e contemporanea. Oltre che mia considerazione è anche una delle affermazioni con cui Scruton apre la dissertazione. Seguono 12 capitoli si 12 importanti questioni filosofiche: perché; la verità; il demone; soggetto e oggetto; le persone; il tempo, dio; la libertà; la moralità; il sesso: la musica: la storia. L'unico che non ho davvero capito è quello sulla musica, non avendo un'educazione formale in merito. Il resto è comprensibile, con un po' di attenzione.
C'è però una pecca: la filosofia va discussa, e purtroppo non poso fare domande od obiezioni a un libro. Preferirei imparare immersa in uno scenario stile accademia platonica.
October 5, 2010
Scruton takes the reader through the major issues of philosophy, and of life: freedom, truth, language, personhood, sex, God. Does philosophy still have something to offer on these topics, in our scientific age? Scruton argues that it does, and does so with deep humanity and eloquence.
November 20, 2017
This book covers a range of philosophic topics in a way that many of my professors struggled to accomplish. A really good, quick, read for anyone interested in the basics of modern philosophic thought.
July 20, 2017
A friend sent me a link to an article by Roger Scruton, consisting of quotes from his recent book. I ended up finding a different book of his with a similar message, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy.
On the broadest view, the book is a defense of the value of philosophy, which I am always happy to see. On a narrower view, the book examines a variety of topics, pointing out that scientific method, while offering insight into many issues, is not always appropriate to the subject matter, because it objectifies what it studies, while many important issues require attention to subjects, the free cognitive agents who are doing the studying.
I have mixed feelings for this kind of approach. While I am sympathetic to defining the limits of scientific method, I am suspicious of describing a domain completely outside of, or incompatible with, what is studied by science. For example, Scruton describes how an objectifying scientific study of humans (which might mean an experimental or behavioral study, although Scruton includes Freud), does not take into account the subjective experiences of humans (such as their sense of freedom or their intersubjective understanding of each other), which are most distinctive of them.
Along these lines he lists characteristics of human beings that other animals do not share. For example, “Dogs, apes and bears have desires, but they do not make choices.” Like my friend who sent me the link, I am skeptical of making radical distinctions between humans and other animals. There is a wide body of literature (Antonio Damasio and V.S. Ramachandran come to mind) by scientists and philosophers showing the continuity between animal and human development. Anything human, I would guess, appears in some form in animals. While it is useful to define human patterns of thinking and feeling, and to describe them in a theoretical way, it is a mistake in my opinion to make them into a radical difference from animals.
Scruton takes this discussion into other topics such as God and morality. In discussing God, he examines several historical lines of thought. One example: just as we, as subjects, are detached from objects in the world, and we share our detached subjectivity with each other, so it seems reasonable to think that there is a collective subjectivity (actual or theoretical), which sets itself apart from the objective world. This is one plausible conception of God, which Scruton rejects.
After discussing several conceptions, Scruton returns to the idea of the holy or the sacred. This is a common experience of all mankind. Who is there that holds nothing holy? As a teenager I read Julian Huxley as an advocate of an atheistic humanism, and he also held onto the idea of the sacred. While Scruton does not defend most theological lines of thought, he does suggest the sacred as a common subjective experience which is lost in a scientific study of the world as objects.
Scruton is at his best in talking about sexuality. He says that ever since Freud, we have talked about sex in terms of drives and desires, which have the effect of objectifying people. He argues that what is distinctive about sexuality is being aware of another person being aware of us. It is not desire, but the awareness of the other person’s feelings and the other person’s awareness of ours, in a (maybe infinite) loop, that makes sexuality interpersonal, and the central human experience that it is. In some of his argument, he follows Sartre.
Scruton is at his best in this type of discussion, in which he describes human subjectivity in a theoretical way, without objectifying it. He goes astray, in my opinion, when he makes this a defining difference between humans and animals.
On the broadest view, the book is a defense of the value of philosophy, which I am always happy to see. On a narrower view, the book examines a variety of topics, pointing out that scientific method, while offering insight into many issues, is not always appropriate to the subject matter, because it objectifies what it studies, while many important issues require attention to subjects, the free cognitive agents who are doing the studying.
I have mixed feelings for this kind of approach. While I am sympathetic to defining the limits of scientific method, I am suspicious of describing a domain completely outside of, or incompatible with, what is studied by science. For example, Scruton describes how an objectifying scientific study of humans (which might mean an experimental or behavioral study, although Scruton includes Freud), does not take into account the subjective experiences of humans (such as their sense of freedom or their intersubjective understanding of each other), which are most distinctive of them.
Along these lines he lists characteristics of human beings that other animals do not share. For example, “Dogs, apes and bears have desires, but they do not make choices.” Like my friend who sent me the link, I am skeptical of making radical distinctions between humans and other animals. There is a wide body of literature (Antonio Damasio and V.S. Ramachandran come to mind) by scientists and philosophers showing the continuity between animal and human development. Anything human, I would guess, appears in some form in animals. While it is useful to define human patterns of thinking and feeling, and to describe them in a theoretical way, it is a mistake in my opinion to make them into a radical difference from animals.
Scruton takes this discussion into other topics such as God and morality. In discussing God, he examines several historical lines of thought. One example: just as we, as subjects, are detached from objects in the world, and we share our detached subjectivity with each other, so it seems reasonable to think that there is a collective subjectivity (actual or theoretical), which sets itself apart from the objective world. This is one plausible conception of God, which Scruton rejects.
After discussing several conceptions, Scruton returns to the idea of the holy or the sacred. This is a common experience of all mankind. Who is there that holds nothing holy? As a teenager I read Julian Huxley as an advocate of an atheistic humanism, and he also held onto the idea of the sacred. While Scruton does not defend most theological lines of thought, he does suggest the sacred as a common subjective experience which is lost in a scientific study of the world as objects.
Scruton is at his best in talking about sexuality. He says that ever since Freud, we have talked about sex in terms of drives and desires, which have the effect of objectifying people. He argues that what is distinctive about sexuality is being aware of another person being aware of us. It is not desire, but the awareness of the other person’s feelings and the other person’s awareness of ours, in a (maybe infinite) loop, that makes sexuality interpersonal, and the central human experience that it is. In some of his argument, he follows Sartre.
Scruton is at his best in this type of discussion, in which he describes human subjectivity in a theoretical way, without objectifying it. He goes astray, in my opinion, when he makes this a defining difference between humans and animals.
September 7, 2011
Give Mr Scruton an extra half star for trying something new. Rather than provide a history of philosophical thought, he attempts to give us a guide on how to philosophize. What we really end up with, however, is a guide on how Roger Scruton philosophizes. Which isn’t always a bad thing (I share his loathing of Foucault). But frankly I got tired of his company after a while.
February 9, 2025
“Philosophy in our tradition has assumed the existence of a plain, common-sense approach to things, which is the property of ordinary people, and which is the business of philosophy to question. The peculiarity of our condition is that the assumption can no longer be made. Faced with the ruin of folkways, traditions, conventions, customs, and dogmas, we can only feel a helpless tenderness for these things which have proved, like everything human, so much easier to destroy than to create.”
“Philosophy arises, therefore, in two contrasted ways: first, in attempting to complete the ‘Why?’ of explanation; secondly in attempting to justify the other kinds of ‘Why?’ — the ‘Why?’ which looks for a reason, and the ‘Why?’ which looks for a meaning. Most of the traditional branches of the subject stem from these two attempts, the first of which is hopeless, the second of which is our best source of hope.”
—Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy
My (attempted) summary of Scruton's interactive approach with philosophy, chapters 1-9, and 12, is below:
1. Chapter 1 - Why?: Scruton argues that there are foundational questions regarding reality lived and the meaning of experience that science cannot answer. He references Max Weber's Entzauberung concept - meaning disenchantment - to describe the results of modern science's assertive approach to all academic fields - and life. He states, "philosophy is useful to us, precisely because it, and it alone, can vindicate the concepts through which we understand and act on the world: concepts like that of the person, which have no place in science but which describe what we understand, when we relate to the world as it truly is for us."
2. Chapter 2 - Truth: Scruton makes the briefest of cases for why language, semantics, and logic all necessitate that there is truth - or at minimum - the assumption of truth, and briefly introduces the reader to the coherence (Hegel) and correspondence (Kant) theories of truth.
3. Chapter 3 - The Demon: Scruton tackles the implications of this philosophical concept by arguing - at the bottom - there are none, as such concepts "set the world so far beyond our knowledge as to leave our concepts unaffected, including our concepts of the world." Scruton closes the chapter by introducing the reader to Kant's concept of synthetic necessary truths - those a priori absolutes that leave us the only "out" against the demon.
4. Chapter 4 - Subject and Object: Scruton examines the Germanic philosophical school - beginning with Fichte - that emphasized the separation of self (subject) and not-self (object) - leading to the "great adventure" of the subject determining itself and realizing freedom in the world through positing objects. Arguing this route leaves the subject in impossible isolation, Scruton describes Wittgenstein's private language argument as the answer to both the Demon and how we get to questions like 'how' and 'why?'
5. Chapter 5 - Persons: "The most important task for philosophy in the modern world is to resurrect the human person, to rescue it from trivializing science, and to replace the sarcasm which knows that we are merely animals, with the irony which sees that we are not." Scruton hinges much of this chapter on the view that "self-consciousness and language emerge together, that both are social phenomena, and that the Cartesian project, of discovering the essence of the mental in that which is private.....is doomed to failure." His aim here - is setting the groundwork for personhood, with individuals "unique and irreplaceable, as the bearer of rights and duties which are his alone."
6. Chapter 6 - Time: Scruton spends a good portion of this chapter wrestling w/ the conception of God as both above time and having characteristics that relate to time, as well as with the individual's relationship to time. This discussion introduces Spinoza's monism - which in Scruton's view is the most illuminating approach - and its assertion that the natural world, and all in it, is an extension of the one eternal substance. However, this potentially wipes out the individual, and experience - how we live and move and feel phenomena - seems to scream against that. We are time-bound persons who relate to each other by the timeless - reason, laws, and emotions - and it is these timeless things that tell us why we really matter. How is this possible?
7. Chapter 7 - God: Scruton makes the case that God takes religious ritual from illusion to reality by becoming the self-conscious subject who confronts other subjects directly - i.e. becomes the solution to the subject / object divide and our 'transcendental loneliness.' He writes, "For most philosophers in our tradition, there is little more to the question of God than the flimsy proofs for his existence. If I am right, however, there is much more. For the impulse to believe, I suggest, stems from a metaphysical predicament. And the God of monotheism is the only possible solution to this predicament, the only thing which stands wholly outside of nature, confronting us as a person, and raising us to the transcendental realm to which our aspirations tend." The problem yet remains - for Scruton and philosophers at large - of how a timeless God could also be temporal, but it is inarguable that the function of this conception of God is a necessary one - for community, for purpose, for understanding of human freedom as it truly is.
8. Chapter 8 - Freedom: Scruton practically equates freedom w/ assigning responsibility - which humans do, and have done, through all time. In a very real sense then, he continues, we don't even need the word freedom - we have all we need in terms such as responsibility, accountability, and excuses. Perhaps Scruton's most important point reemerges here - we are again bumping unavoidably into concepts - personhood, freedom, responsibility, subject - which shape the world we live in and how we appear to each other. Science sweeps away these appearances - but it's not capable of showing us how to live or describing the world we live in, day-to-day, moment-by-moment. Attempts to create a world through science alone have been tried, Scruton reminds us, and they've routinely led to disaster (page 108).
9. Chapter 9 - Morality: Morality must be absolute - but moral law is not sufficient. We must cultivate virtue - both for ourselves and to preserve society. Few argue about this - outside of philosophical circles. It just is. What seems different in our modern world is the debate around what actually constitutes virtue.
10. Chapter 12 - History: Scruton notes that while Hegel believed the "elucidation of history" to be one of the central tasks of philosophy, his attempts at a true philosophy of history were an (inevitable) failure, as were subsequent attempts to offer up a 'natural' science of history (Marx). Instead, Scruton cautions against seeing history and the human sciences as sciences at all; rather, they should be viewed as 'spirit knowledge' or 'spirit wisdom / expertise' (Geisteswissenschaften), earnest attempts to relate to free subjects (not merely objects) from the past. Hence, the importance of historical categories, with which we can engage in rational dialogue with the past.
“Philosophy arises, therefore, in two contrasted ways: first, in attempting to complete the ‘Why?’ of explanation; secondly in attempting to justify the other kinds of ‘Why?’ — the ‘Why?’ which looks for a reason, and the ‘Why?’ which looks for a meaning. Most of the traditional branches of the subject stem from these two attempts, the first of which is hopeless, the second of which is our best source of hope.”
—Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy
My (attempted) summary of Scruton's interactive approach with philosophy, chapters 1-9, and 12, is below:
1. Chapter 1 - Why?: Scruton argues that there are foundational questions regarding reality lived and the meaning of experience that science cannot answer. He references Max Weber's Entzauberung concept - meaning disenchantment - to describe the results of modern science's assertive approach to all academic fields - and life. He states, "philosophy is useful to us, precisely because it, and it alone, can vindicate the concepts through which we understand and act on the world: concepts like that of the person, which have no place in science but which describe what we understand, when we relate to the world as it truly is for us."
2. Chapter 2 - Truth: Scruton makes the briefest of cases for why language, semantics, and logic all necessitate that there is truth - or at minimum - the assumption of truth, and briefly introduces the reader to the coherence (Hegel) and correspondence (Kant) theories of truth.
3. Chapter 3 - The Demon: Scruton tackles the implications of this philosophical concept by arguing - at the bottom - there are none, as such concepts "set the world so far beyond our knowledge as to leave our concepts unaffected, including our concepts of the world." Scruton closes the chapter by introducing the reader to Kant's concept of synthetic necessary truths - those a priori absolutes that leave us the only "out" against the demon.
4. Chapter 4 - Subject and Object: Scruton examines the Germanic philosophical school - beginning with Fichte - that emphasized the separation of self (subject) and not-self (object) - leading to the "great adventure" of the subject determining itself and realizing freedom in the world through positing objects. Arguing this route leaves the subject in impossible isolation, Scruton describes Wittgenstein's private language argument as the answer to both the Demon and how we get to questions like 'how' and 'why?'
5. Chapter 5 - Persons: "The most important task for philosophy in the modern world is to resurrect the human person, to rescue it from trivializing science, and to replace the sarcasm which knows that we are merely animals, with the irony which sees that we are not." Scruton hinges much of this chapter on the view that "self-consciousness and language emerge together, that both are social phenomena, and that the Cartesian project, of discovering the essence of the mental in that which is private.....is doomed to failure." His aim here - is setting the groundwork for personhood, with individuals "unique and irreplaceable, as the bearer of rights and duties which are his alone."
6. Chapter 6 - Time: Scruton spends a good portion of this chapter wrestling w/ the conception of God as both above time and having characteristics that relate to time, as well as with the individual's relationship to time. This discussion introduces Spinoza's monism - which in Scruton's view is the most illuminating approach - and its assertion that the natural world, and all in it, is an extension of the one eternal substance. However, this potentially wipes out the individual, and experience - how we live and move and feel phenomena - seems to scream against that. We are time-bound persons who relate to each other by the timeless - reason, laws, and emotions - and it is these timeless things that tell us why we really matter. How is this possible?
7. Chapter 7 - God: Scruton makes the case that God takes religious ritual from illusion to reality by becoming the self-conscious subject who confronts other subjects directly - i.e. becomes the solution to the subject / object divide and our 'transcendental loneliness.' He writes, "For most philosophers in our tradition, there is little more to the question of God than the flimsy proofs for his existence. If I am right, however, there is much more. For the impulse to believe, I suggest, stems from a metaphysical predicament. And the God of monotheism is the only possible solution to this predicament, the only thing which stands wholly outside of nature, confronting us as a person, and raising us to the transcendental realm to which our aspirations tend." The problem yet remains - for Scruton and philosophers at large - of how a timeless God could also be temporal, but it is inarguable that the function of this conception of God is a necessary one - for community, for purpose, for understanding of human freedom as it truly is.
8. Chapter 8 - Freedom: Scruton practically equates freedom w/ assigning responsibility - which humans do, and have done, through all time. In a very real sense then, he continues, we don't even need the word freedom - we have all we need in terms such as responsibility, accountability, and excuses. Perhaps Scruton's most important point reemerges here - we are again bumping unavoidably into concepts - personhood, freedom, responsibility, subject - which shape the world we live in and how we appear to each other. Science sweeps away these appearances - but it's not capable of showing us how to live or describing the world we live in, day-to-day, moment-by-moment. Attempts to create a world through science alone have been tried, Scruton reminds us, and they've routinely led to disaster (page 108).
9. Chapter 9 - Morality: Morality must be absolute - but moral law is not sufficient. We must cultivate virtue - both for ourselves and to preserve society. Few argue about this - outside of philosophical circles. It just is. What seems different in our modern world is the debate around what actually constitutes virtue.
10. Chapter 12 - History: Scruton notes that while Hegel believed the "elucidation of history" to be one of the central tasks of philosophy, his attempts at a true philosophy of history were an (inevitable) failure, as were subsequent attempts to offer up a 'natural' science of history (Marx). Instead, Scruton cautions against seeing history and the human sciences as sciences at all; rather, they should be viewed as 'spirit knowledge' or 'spirit wisdom / expertise' (Geisteswissenschaften), earnest attempts to relate to free subjects (not merely objects) from the past. Hence, the importance of historical categories, with which we can engage in rational dialogue with the past.
April 24, 2016
Succinct and yet comprehensive tour around philosophy not in quotes but in essence, building a clear and human narrative around the heavy concepts. Takes a while to warm up to Scruton's style but gets better with each chapter and the last one is an eloquent and inspiring summary.
December 23, 2009
A philosopher one can actually read, understand, and appreciate. Fancy that!
February 21, 2022
Rewarding even if it is something one needs to return to fully grasp.
March 29, 2020
Excelente. Roger Scruton no defrauda a sus lectores. Esta guía es precisa, sencilla, con un lenguaje ameno. La filosofía siempre ha sido mi asignatura preferida en la vida. Recurro a la lectura de filósofos constantemente como vía de escape a un mundo que no es fácil de acceder: el de las preguntas. Este libro aborda justamente eso, las preguntas más relevantes que la filosofía intenta, más que resolver, plantear correctamente. Creo que eso es lo más importante que me deja este libro, la importancia que han tenido en la historia del pensamiento las preguntas, más allá de las interminables respuestas que se han intentado. Subrayé muchos apartados, quizás el más complejo de entender fue el de la música. Scruton era un músico fino y elegante, no es fácil captar esas sutilezas detrás de conceptos como melodía, acorde y armonía y su profundidad filosófica. Me quedo también con un capítulo especial que se titula Persons. Lo releí varias veces, necesitaba reafirmar esa idea recurrente que vengo masticando hace tiempo sobre lo subvalorado, desestimado y aporreado que está el individuo en estos tiempos que corren, doblegado al colectivismo y a la decisión de las masas; la tribalidad me ahoga. En fin, si quieren gozar de un paseo suave y sencillo por el mundo esencial de las ideas filosóficas este libro es lo mejor. Scruton, uno de mis autores principales, en la cabecera de mis ideas.
March 30, 2024
Roger scruton's introduction to philosophy extensively analyses the major developments of western philosophy and their subject of study in a Cartesian approach. Despite its short number of pages i savoured it for months as it had packed with dense subjects and interestingly compelling discourse to decode such topics. It invoked prominent philosophers such as Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Socrates, Plato Aristotle, Nietzsche and many others with their philosophies to support the discussions. The various subjects of philosophy such as the importance of philosophy in our mortal lives, nature of time, truth, knowledge and reality, distinction between subjects and objects, the foundations of morality, arguments on freewill, the existence of God and the nature of religion, the perception of the history of philosophy were all explored in 12 different chapters. The emphasis on the why element of philosophy was discussed with such a thought inducing approach. The overall reading experience has piqued the philosophical curiosity in me as well provided me insightful arguments to understand the fundamental elements of philosophy. It was a thought provoking read that ensured that I was left with more questions than answers.
August 14, 2024
in my opinion best book to start philosophy. It gives you a solid understanding of reality in philosophers eyes. In my opinion this is must read book.
October 19, 2018
DNF'd at page 100/160
The entire book is defending the value of philosophy by glossing through everyday topics that relate to different types of philosophy. While I was impressed that the author simplified the concepts so well, I found it took a lot of the meaning away as well. Despite the academic styling of the writing, I found myself feeling rather stupid for having such simplistic concepts explained so thoroughly. I will also excuse a lot of the annoying name dropping as it does provide a nice launch pad for those that may need it.
I honestly don't know how the author makes 160 pages feel like such a chore, but it may just be that I am not the intended audience as I already have an interest in philosophy. This book feels like it is written towards those that feel like philosophy is useless and nothing but a waste of time. Though with the title being what it is, I doubt the book's intended audience would ever willingly pick it up. Perhaps I would have rated it higher if it was more properly named.
The entire book is defending the value of philosophy by glossing through everyday topics that relate to different types of philosophy. While I was impressed that the author simplified the concepts so well, I found it took a lot of the meaning away as well. Despite the academic styling of the writing, I found myself feeling rather stupid for having such simplistic concepts explained so thoroughly. I will also excuse a lot of the annoying name dropping as it does provide a nice launch pad for those that may need it.
I honestly don't know how the author makes 160 pages feel like such a chore, but it may just be that I am not the intended audience as I already have an interest in philosophy. This book feels like it is written towards those that feel like philosophy is useless and nothing but a waste of time. Though with the title being what it is, I doubt the book's intended audience would ever willingly pick it up. Perhaps I would have rated it higher if it was more properly named.
December 31, 2012
For some reason I read this book from Scruton again, despite having previously appraised the book as "Bloviating balderdash mixed with meandering mush." I suppose it's because reading Scruton's book on beauty got me used to his writing style and peculiar viewpoint, and I figured I would give this one another whirl to see if I was previously being unfair. So, was I? Maybe a little. This book is fine if you want to get a sprinkling of philosophical views on its topics, but it offers little in way of argumentation beyond rewordings and assertions and little in the way of clarity beyond clarifying that Scruton favors certain ideas for reasons he is either unable or unwilling to lucidly express. Still, I'll bump it up to 2 stars in the spirit of charity,
November 20, 2015
Should be called "an unquestioning guide to the bits of philosophy that confirm my beliefs and prejudices".
Frequently irritating book that takes sides (typically conservatively) and is more often dismissive of opposing arguments than discussing them. There are much better introductions available pitched at a similar level.
Frequently irritating book that takes sides (typically conservatively) and is more often dismissive of opposing arguments than discussing them. There are much better introductions available pitched at a similar level.
June 5, 2019
Here is a very helpful introduction, with lots to disagree with (it doesn’t go far enough for Christians ), and lots to appreciate:
Truth
Subject and object
Persons
Time
God
Freedom
Reality
Sex
Music
History
Brief chapters on all of these from one of our leading philosophers.
Truth
Subject and object
Persons
Time
God
Freedom
Reality
Sex
Music
History
Brief chapters on all of these from one of our leading philosophers.
July 11, 2020
Being not just an academic in philosophy department but a philosopher himself, Scruton truly presents in this delightful book of his a critical approach to basic philosophical problems and offers proficient insights to them. A book that absolutely deserves its name. Really enjoyed it...
December 29, 2021
Somewhat inspiring and intriguing - but also a bit arrogant and cryptic. If it's an introduction You are looking for - keep looking. But Scruton's elegant way of approaching philosophy is charming. I will re-read it again, once I get past my provocation.
January 27, 2014
Covers a number of philosophical topics at a bit more advanced than introductory level.
April 30, 2025
I was suckered twice by this one. First by the title. I'm an intelligent person. Right? Must be for me? Ugh, I paid for my arrogance many times over as I waded through this dreck. Second, he promised that reading this book would allow us to do philosophy together, not just read about it. I wanted that. I wanted to be engaged, to be forced to reexamine the great questions, to be challenged. Like him or hate him, Plato always does that, but it's sadly rare in modern works of philosophy. Mr. Scruton delivered little in the way of doing philosophy. Much of it is high level descriptions of what important philosophers thought about basic philosophical questions - exactly the opposite of what he promised. And then the rest of it is Mr. Scruton pontificating about his own positions which are essentially the world view of an upper-class Victorian enamored with the values of the Enlightenment, Empire and Capitalism and so stuck in the mud that three teams of oxen couldn't pull him out. He's just the kind of stuffed shirt that I used to find among my dad's friends when I was a teenager whose conservatism make me want more than anything to turn on, tune in and drop out. If what adulthood had in store for me was to become like one of those jerks, I wanted no part of it. I have other bones to pick with Mr. Scruton. He sneers at Hegel, but then follows him. He dismisses Marx as Hegel warmed over without seriously considering him. He sneers at Foucault without giving him the benefit of even a cursory refutation, and he has a typical conservative's misunderstanding of post-modernism, first confusing it with modernism and then saying that it wrong because it is future-oriented. While I am generally a person of the left and find much of value in contemporary left leaning thinkers, I also see value in the past and in cultivating the virtues. I have read and personally known smart conservatives who were passionate about their positions and smart in defending them. I do not count Mr. Scruton among them.
March 29, 2024
«Filosofia» significa o amor pela sabedoria. A Filosofia ensinada nas universidades britânicas e americanas dá grande atenção à análise de conceitos e à estrutura dos argumentos lógicos, mas raramente a temas que se pareçam com sabedoria. Há muitas razões para este facto. Durante os cerca de cem anos da sua existência, a filosofia analítica tem-se centrado na lógica, na metafísica e na epistemologia, com incursões ocasionais na ética e na política, e tende a negligenciar uma paisagem cultural mais ampla. Tópicos relevantes para o sentido da vida - religião, arte, música - são com frequência tratados depreciativamente, e o facto de a filosofia ser literatura, para ser julgada e apreciada tanto pela sua beleza como pela sua verdade, tem sido largamente ignorado.”
“É, no entanto, verdade que, desde o Iluminismo, o pensamento moral retrocedeu perante a piedade e investiu a sua maior energia nessas ideias legais abstractas que se associam ao respeito pelas pessoas.
Isto aconteceu por muitas razões, e não é meu objectivo examiná-las.
Mas não é descabido acreditar que a espoliação, a superprodução e a destruição do ambiente provêm todas de uma única fonte, que é a da perda de piedade. Por mais fundo que possa ser ocultada no interior da nossa psique, a piedade não é de modo nenhum uma parte redundante da consciência moral, mas, pelo contrário, a fonte das nossas emoções sociais mais valiosas. É a piedade, e não a razão, que implanta em nós o respeito pelo mundo, pelo seu passado e o seu futuro, e que nos impede de pilhar tudo o que podemos antes que a luz da consciência nos falhe.
É também a piedade que faz com que exaltemos a forma humana na vida e na arte. Talvez haja seres morais que não são humanos: anjos, diabos e divindades, se é que eles existem. Mas não temos experiência directa deles. Não temos uma imagem clara da moral à excepção da imagem da forma humana (…)”
Roger Scruton, Guia de Filosofia para Pessoas Inteligentes ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“É, no entanto, verdade que, desde o Iluminismo, o pensamento moral retrocedeu perante a piedade e investiu a sua maior energia nessas ideias legais abstractas que se associam ao respeito pelas pessoas.
Isto aconteceu por muitas razões, e não é meu objectivo examiná-las.
Mas não é descabido acreditar que a espoliação, a superprodução e a destruição do ambiente provêm todas de uma única fonte, que é a da perda de piedade. Por mais fundo que possa ser ocultada no interior da nossa psique, a piedade não é de modo nenhum uma parte redundante da consciência moral, mas, pelo contrário, a fonte das nossas emoções sociais mais valiosas. É a piedade, e não a razão, que implanta em nós o respeito pelo mundo, pelo seu passado e o seu futuro, e que nos impede de pilhar tudo o que podemos antes que a luz da consciência nos falhe.
É também a piedade que faz com que exaltemos a forma humana na vida e na arte. Talvez haja seres morais que não são humanos: anjos, diabos e divindades, se é que eles existem. Mas não temos experiência directa deles. Não temos uma imagem clara da moral à excepção da imagem da forma humana (…)”
Roger Scruton, Guia de Filosofia para Pessoas Inteligentes ⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 16, 2025
Filosofi för den moderna människan av Rogert Scruton (1998) – en ingång till tankens värld. Skruton använder ett grekisk angreppssätt på filosofi kring ämnena Tid, sanning, frihet, moral, jaget(Subjekt vs objekt) med inslag av musik, sex och estetik (Vilket han var drivande inom – som professor i Estetik vid London University). Boken har en konservativ utgångspunkt och leder läsaren lättläst genom kapitlen. Han bemöter argument med starka förklaringar. Objektivitet passar sällan in i vardagen – vi gör val och värderingar utifrån våra liv. Vilket kan verka självklart för gemene man men har krånglats till i onödan. Referenser till Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Socrates, Aristoteles, Rawl, Freud med flera. Fördel är ifall man känner till mycket filosofisk historia sedan tidigare (Men koncept tas upp på ett översiktligt sätt när de är relevanta). Kapitlet med musik var enligt mig det svåraste – jag har inte någon särskild koppling till klassisk musik. Många praktiska exempel annars i boken. Huvudpoängen är att människor lever i sociala samhällen och samklang med varandra – moraliska system skapas och tolkningar av beteenden eller syften görs hela tiden. Vad? Hur? Varför? Det har tagits upp att människan är en gruppvarelse – individualismen är en relativt ny företeelse. Begrepp så som plikt, skyldigheter, rättigheter, övverenskommelser tas upp. Den andra boken jag läst av Edward Scruton – rekommenderas varmt.
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June 3, 2019I don't think I'm in any position to give this book a rating. It basically reinforced my opinion that philosophy isn't my cup of tea. To be frank much of it didn't seem like philosophy at all. There is a discussion about how if, say, an apple falls off the branch of a tree on my head and I ask "why?" then you can say that the branch was weak and the weight of the apple applied too much pressure, etc. But if you throw an apple on my head and I ask "why?" you wouldn't answer "because impulses in my brain made my muscles move in such and such a way". (I don't remember the exact wording and can't find the page right now). But that's just distinguishing between cause and reason, which to me is just semantics. He goes on to say that it's more than semantics, but to be honest he lost me.
The section on music lost me completely.
I suspect that, if I want to learn about philosophy, I should probably do so in a classroom setting, so I can interact, ask questions, etc. etc. Unfortunately I can't do that with a book.
Some interesting quotes:
"All rational beings have an interest in acquiring courage, since without it they can achieve what they really want only by luck, and only in the absence of adversity"
The quote by Masaryk re: "half-education" (too long to quote verbatim, but on page 14)
http://4201mass.blogspot.com/
The section on music lost me completely.
I suspect that, if I want to learn about philosophy, I should probably do so in a classroom setting, so I can interact, ask questions, etc. etc. Unfortunately I can't do that with a book.
Some interesting quotes:
"All rational beings have an interest in acquiring courage, since without it they can achieve what they really want only by luck, and only in the absence of adversity"
The quote by Masaryk re: "half-education" (too long to quote verbatim, but on page 14)
http://4201mass.blogspot.com/
March 19, 2024
Scruton’s work begins on a rather antagonistic note, against logical positivism and what might be termed ‘scientism’. It cuts to what his purpose of the book is, a defence of philosophy against the contemporaneous critique of it.
This book was published in 1996, and funnily enough this was the same year in which the Sokal affair occurred. Sokal is a physicist whom wrote a hoax paper which in essence was attacking deconstructionist views of scientific concepts as linguistic constructs. Postmodern conceptions of science as a hegemonic ‘way of knowing’ was common at the time. So, Scruton was very wrong indeed if he thought that science stood completely unopposed.
I must admit I struggled with this volume, perhaps because I am not sufficiently an intelligent person(!), however I will say this, Scruton does make a solid case for keeping philosophy in the intellectual arena of humanity, and not to be relegated to the history books. This, I agree with. There is still a place for the study of ‘love of wisdom’, and ethics and morals and all its ongoing discourses. A counter example to this may well be someone like Peter Atkins, an English Chemist whom is a hardliner on the supremacy of science. Scruton’s views on animal intelligence might well also raise an eyebrow or two in any ethics committee.
This book was published in 1996, and funnily enough this was the same year in which the Sokal affair occurred. Sokal is a physicist whom wrote a hoax paper which in essence was attacking deconstructionist views of scientific concepts as linguistic constructs. Postmodern conceptions of science as a hegemonic ‘way of knowing’ was common at the time. So, Scruton was very wrong indeed if he thought that science stood completely unopposed.
I must admit I struggled with this volume, perhaps because I am not sufficiently an intelligent person(!), however I will say this, Scruton does make a solid case for keeping philosophy in the intellectual arena of humanity, and not to be relegated to the history books. This, I agree with. There is still a place for the study of ‘love of wisdom’, and ethics and morals and all its ongoing discourses. A counter example to this may well be someone like Peter Atkins, an English Chemist whom is a hardliner on the supremacy of science. Scruton’s views on animal intelligence might well also raise an eyebrow or two in any ethics committee.
February 13, 2018
Muy buen libro. ¿Quiere usted hacer filosofía? No es mala idea observar primero a otro tipo inteligente haciendo eso que usted intenta hacer. Le servirá de observación e inspiración para hacerlo de manera constructiva. Y, claro, de paso se logrará algo fantástico: renacerá el espíritu filosófico, ese que va más allá de la observación científica y permite entrar en el uso de la razón.
De esa manera, Scruton examina temas como la libertad, la moralidad, la música, Dios, la historia, el tiempo y otros más. Un placer aunque hay veces que la lectura no es simple (lo que es una ventaja ante libros de sencillez extrema y, además, si alguien desea saber más tendrá que esforzarse y eso le pondrá frente a textos como este).
De esa manera, Scruton examina temas como la libertad, la moralidad, la música, Dios, la historia, el tiempo y otros más. Un placer aunque hay veces que la lectura no es simple (lo que es una ventaja ante libros de sencillez extrema y, además, si alguien desea saber más tendrá que esforzarse y eso le pondrá frente a textos como este).
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