A short, CRITICAL History of Philosophy, Chapter 59

Who Was Roger Scruton And What Can We Learn From Him?

Philosophy has been a rich man’s game. Rousseau stands as a great exception to this rule as he grew up in some degree of hardship. (Yet Rousseau’s mother came from the haute bourgeoisie.) More than a few of the famous philosophers were reared with the ever-present awareness that they need not ever work at an ordinary job – or any occupation. Many, in fact, were titled aristocrats. Among that number were Montaigne, Montesquieu, de Tocqueville and Russell. Only slightly behind them in social class was Wittgenstein. His family was likely the richest in Europe.

Philosophy has tended to be been an activity of the idle rich, and the superficiality of many of its notable names reflects this. Plato was a gifted writer, but his involvement in the cult that formed around Socrates is not so different from the attachment to radical political causes displayed by the fascist philosopher Julius Evola or the Symbionese Liberation Army disciple Patty Hearst. It was a fun way to show one’s superiority to the commoners who believed in such seemingly foolish and vulgar notions as equality before the law and democratic self-governance.

Roger Scruton (1944-2020) was the antithesis of this. It is a great irony that he was eventually given the title of Sir Roger as he grew up in a row home in a slum neighborhood of Manchester, England. Scruton’s working-class roots were no pose. His father was literally a bastard, and he seems to have been a figurative one as well. Thus, when Scruton, who excelled in school, received a scholarship to attend Cambridge, his father turned his back on him, swearing that he would never speak to his son again.