An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture

Book Description

Received by the British press with equal acclaim and indignation, this book sets out to define and defend high culture against the world of pop, corn, and popcorn. It shows just why culture matters in an age without faith, and gives an extended argument, drawing on philosophy, criticism, and anthropology, against the "post-modernist" world-view. Scruton offers a penetrating attack on deconstruction, on Foucault, on Nietzschean self-indulgence, and on the "culture of repudiation" which has infected the modern academy. But his book is not only negative. It is a celebration of the true heroes of modern culture and a call to the higher life.

The American edition of this famous and notorious work has been revised to take account of the controversy which it has inspired, and contains new material specially directed to Americans.

Customer Reviews:

Anyone out there interested in the basic issues? .......2007-02-05

I'd hoped to enjoy the the knowledge and insight of the reviewers as well as the author of the book in question - letting me know whether I should buy it or borrow it through my local library. But I'm frustrated at what I regard as agonizingly intellectual reviews of what appears to be an agonizingly intellectualized analysis of modern culture.

Isn't it possible to address a simpler question: why isn't there a 20th Century continuation of music that provides entertainment, solace, feelings of reverence, joy, and relaxation to larger segments of the public - that much 19th Century and earlier music was designed to do?Think about the ecstatic reception of Dvorak's New World Symphony in Philadelphia in 1895.

Why must such values be relegated to the popular music world? Why do contemporary composers ignore the needs of general audiences, amateur performers, church congregations, and children in favor of following their personal muse, deriving pleasure in techno- or structral musical experimentation in directions that have no possible or even intended links to those outsider professional or cultural elites?

And why aren't the reviewers asking these questions?

A "conservative" view pining.......2006-11-19

Roger Scruton, like many so-called "conservatives" has made a noble swing (hence the two stars) at assessing the spiritual and philosophical problems of our day that have produced what Eliot called the "hollow men", but his "conservative" view is not mine.

While he doesn't give a cultural solution, he makes the keen observation that all conservatives can agree upon, by and large, in the first paragraph of p. 82 regarding culture and religion, how the two intersect, and how one derives meaning. Well done there.

He observes how artists have become the new priests, but have turned art into kitsch, (p. 90) and religion followed (p. 92). In this chapter (8), he correctly discusses how the first effects of modernism was to make high-culture difficult, rather than broadly affirming, which was true - hyper elitist, which you can read from works in T.S. Eliot's day and before. Furthermore, culture became kitschy and ultimately banal, via pop culture, ultimately imbuing fake aesthetic values, which I concur with the author's observation. In Anglo culture, pop culture has become, by and large, fake heritage - a commercial phony disguising what has been lost.

In Chapter 10, he makes some apt observations about the totemic iconic status of pop stars. While pop stars have saint-like status, particularly with youth, I think Scruton gives them too much validity, though they are the modern bards, I wish he would have seasoned his thoughts with an analysis on how corporate ownership uses this enculturation to manipulate the public into the reductionistic location of commodity - everything for sale.

Although, I agree with much of Michael Gunther's assessment regarding Scruton's book of meditations, or rather, observations, that is taking a critical observation of the time line from the Reformation, which Scruton calls the Enlightenment (an historical error).

The error that he makes is to pin, like many conservative Roman Catholic thinkers, the problems of Western society onto the Protestant Reformers, particularly Martin Luther, which is the tone on pages 19, 81 and elsewhere, but explicitly on page 23. He attempts to infuse the Reformation with the caustic thoughts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche and others. This is an inaccurate analysis of Western religion and thought. While he introduces some continental thought that is less known today, like earlier German and French literature and art, he tends to merge it all eclectically to seek a salve for his tortured cultural mind. His solution, like many of his ilk, is to decry the breaking up of the Roman Catholic hegemony in the Middle Ages and the retreat of its sacred vision and authority.

But, the fact of history is that the building and erosion of Western culture is a multi-faceted one that is not so convenient to his position. For instance, did you know that Charles V, who was at odds with the Reformation, also sacked Rome and the pope?

While conservative myself, an Anglo "Whig" conservative, I read this book and saw more broadly how the contemporary "liberal" / "conservative" divide is really a loosely held confederation of worldviews, with many overlaps. Scruton is really trying to speak from an English cultural view (we'll say Anglo, because that cultural worldview reaches beyond England). The conservative Anglo worldview changed in the time of the Tudors to a Reformed Protestant one (even that morphed between a traditional Anglican, Puritan Anglican / Non-Conformist, Laudian, Latitudinarian, Evangelical and others). Like ancient Israel, even this has its muddling. In religious history, the rise of the Anglo-Catholic movement undermined and co-opted this history, which made it vulnerable, as Newman would observe of its romantic medievalism. In history, Britain and the Anglo world started to lose its history and memory as it grew out, losing its religion, and getting caught up in colonial concerns that gained the world, but lost its soul; which got it entangled with multi-culturalism, which has become its political warder. The story is too long and interwoven to call it all out, but there are milestones and I think Scruton gets it wrong from the Anglo position. To make it universal is more difficult, which is what many are trying to do today without ties to religious mooring, but through political revisionisms, such as the post-modern views that Scruton aptly scrutinizes.

Much of the post-War angst you can read in such works as the writings of Philip Larkin and the critiques of Peter Hitchens, and I must add, George Orwell; and, in film and TV (e.g. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Inspector Morse", etc.). This undertow was revealed much earlier in Matthew Arnold's era, like his poem, "Dover Beach". WWI, positivism, socialism, among other elements, helped push it along (the 60s wasn't the origin, it was a cumulative effect). The result has been a tragic ride down a nihilistic path. For those in Britain, the punk movement makes cultural sense as an outcome, but even it too has been submerged into the sale and dance of commodity culture, which is what we have with the loss of tradition. You can now see why human life is devalued and cruelty is the face of pop culture today - but you won't see that in the papers or in advertisements without looking.

Lastly, Scruton makes some keen observations about the Zeitgeist influenced by the usual suspects, like Herbert Marcuse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michael Foucalt and others who exported much of their nihilistic poison, which he correctly ties in with the 18th century Jacobins and moving forward (p. 124f). None the less, the soixante-huitards have had their day. But for Scruton, he odes cultural hope without faith and strangely Confucius and not Christ? A truly orthodox Protestant critique, which would have also resonated in the ancient Jewish / Catholic / Orthodox heart - is to trust God and not institutions, which man tends to deify in substitution, which happened at Trent and elsewhere.

Our times are much like the days in the book of Judges. If one looks at Christian and Western history through the glass of the ancient history of the Old Testament Jews, one will get a better look at a truly conservative vision of the history of man (Anglo and otherwise) and God and some light toward a clearer interpretation of man's history - a story of man, with feet of clay, troding back and forth like Bunyan's allegory trying to find himself and his way.

A defence of the high culture.......2006-04-23

The author starts by giving a definition of the concept of culture and states his intention to pursue an "archaeological" method in studying his subject. He then discusses the difference between cult and culture in which he sees religion as the guarantee of social knowledge and asserts that there can be no scientific culture because culture addresses the question of what we feel. Mr Scruton then proceeds by defining the Romantic movement in art and literature and linking it to the decline of Christian faith and the Enlightenment, the aesthetic thus replacing the religious. And so art and literature ceased to be recreation and became studies. Since the aesthetic is the realm of value, the question of taste arises. He underlines the importance of fiction in high culture because it is the product of the imagination. Art being the product of the human spirit, it is higher than nature and apart from it.
Mr Scruton then concentrates on Romanticism which had nature, erotic love and the world before Enlightenment as its dominant themes. Works of art also pose the question of the importance of fantasy and imagination. Modernism is also discussed with the example of Baudelaire, then avant-garde and the concept of kitsch in which advertising is important because it creates a fantasy in which value can be purchased so that price and value are one and the same.
The author then discusses the issue that the relationship between a painting or a novel and its subject is an intentional one, not a material one as opposed to photography.
A further topic is modern music in which it is not the music that is the focus of attention but the singer himself. In the music of youth, the music is at the service of the performer and not the other way round.
Finally the author concludes that culture is rooted in religion and that the role of modern high culture is to perpetrate the common culture not as a religion but as art.
An interesting study of modern values and of the importance of aesthetic principles which shows that "culture" does not merely denote every kind of collective habit.

"May I Know the Whole ..........2004-07-30

of which you are so beautiful a part," was a favourite prayer of the man about whom I wrote my doctoral dissertation, the philosopher of religion, William Earnest Hocking. Scruton's conclusion to his work on modern culture reminded me of that prayer. Initially, like many other reviewers on this site, I was annoyed with what I thought were too few answers. And yet the more I pondered Scruton's reference to to the natural piety of Wordsworth, and the ethos of Confucianism, I found myself agreeing with the suggestions he offers.

Again, as with at least one other reviewer, I felt that "Yoofanasia" is worth the price of the book. The tragedy is, indeed, that many of those who might benefit most from these insights are probably unlikely to read the book or this chapter and possibily unable to do so. As one who second career involved thirty years of trying to get adolescents to learn to think, and who refused to buy into the cult of self-esteem and child-centred education, Scruton is right on in this analysis. When I pondered my own experience of how ungrateful were most of these charges of mine, it seemed eminently clear that natural piety could provide some corrective to that and the civility, courtesy, and deference to wisdom of traditional Confucianism could do that as well.

I recommend the book particularly to educators concerned about schools which are warehouses for adolescents and for those who want to make of them anything but. I recommend it for those concerned with media ecology. I recommend it for those whose own hearts leap up when they behold rainbows in the sky, or the warmth of furry, purring kittens, or the smiling, silent face of their beloved.

Catherine Berry Stidsen, Cayuga, Ontario, Canada

Twilight of the gods.......2002-05-11

This is a great guided tour through the last few centuries of culture. Scruton appears to be an advocate of natural law (the notion that the good will become obvious to the enquiring mind)--believing that the doorway to this epiphany is through high culture. However, he has to go back a century or so to find good examples. It seems that there is nothing worthwhile happening these days. Scruton has a major Wagner thing going on -- they are on the same page as far as the whole twilight of the gods idea goes.

Book Description

The Republic of Ireland, described variously as "The Emerald Tiger", "The Celtic Tiger" and "The Tiger Economy of Europe", is apparently one of the great success stories of 20th-century Europe. Just 75 years into independence, less than 40 years from the stygian blackness of pre-modernity, and only a decade from what seemed to be an economic apocalypse, Ireland has finally modernized. With a young population and economic growth rates the envy of the western world, it should offer a model for all fledgling states to follow. In this unsentimental account of the recent history of his native country, John Waters defines the nature of the ideology which fuelled the drive to modernization, charts the progress of the policies which brought it to fruition, and reveals how Ireland recreated itself culturally, politically, spiritually and economically, as "Modern Ireland".

Customer Reviews:

a middlebrow revisionist.......2002-03-07

... Ireland is a fine place to live. The major reason for Irish emigration was economic. Since the country has experienced a growth rate touching ten percent for the last ten years, people are falling over themselves to live there. It is a relatively liberal place which does not have the death penalty, does not arm its children, does not teach creationism in the classroom, and is not racially segregated. Also, unlike the United States, it is not an insular, anonymous, car-dependent, advertisement-saturated culture where one drifts from one processed, corporate-inspired ghost-experience to another. With the possible exceptions of New York and San Fransisco, there is no reason to live in the States beyond financial gain (I admit that's a pretty good reason.)
Waters is an example of Ireland's highly self-critical culture, a culture typical of successful postcolonial states (like Canada and Australia.) In Ireland to be an 'intellectual' is to be critical of the culture. After achieving independence, economic stagnation and proximity to the imperial power (Britain), encouraged feelings of provincialism and self-hatred, the idea that 'things must be better elsewhere'. During this period, one might say that "every foreigner was a distinguished foreigner." Conversely, what was local could not be good, could not measure up on the world-stage. This lack of confidence has mostly evaporated but intellectual culture changes more slowly than popular culture. As in 'Jiving At The Crossroads', Waters is sharp enough to register these shifts ... Yet, as 'Angela's Ashes' shows, there's still lots of money to be made knocking over straw leprechauns.

Alcoholic Nation.......2002-03-01

I fled Ireland almost two decades ago. I've spent the time since then recovering from growing up there.

Among other things, I've decided that Irish people are mostly driven to despair by the local weather and religion, and they self-medicate on alcohol. This book makes that point clearly and well.

Other points made by the book concern the Irish media elite (they despise other Irish, but aren't honest enough to simply leave the country), the Catholic hierarchy and its hypocrisy (especially the ex-Bishop of Galway), increasing Irish dependence on other countries - especially for food. And so on.

Book Description

We live, allegedly, in a postmodern age in which we have cast aside the narrative fantasies of the pre-modern era. If postmodernism represents the final abandonment of all grand theories, where does religion stand? If religion is a particularly unbelievable form of explanation, why does it power still affect social and political change? Here, like the skeptics of our age, the author asks, What has theology ever had to say that was of the slightest use to anyone? He argues that religion without God is like a car without an engine, and draws on many aspects of human culture to offer a defense of religion that is not only credible but necessary in an age when postmodernism itself has been exposed as a cruel illusion.

Customer Reviews:

Intelligence and Religion?.......2006-09-11

Although I absolutely believe in a person's right to believe in whatever crazy ideas they choose to (Jesus, Bigfoot, UFOs), I must vociferously protest the use of the words "Intelligent" and "Religion" in the same sentence.

Falwell with a style guide.......2005-08-05

John Haldane's elegant and measured prose creates distance between this book and the usual run of culture wars agit-prop, but unfortunately the metaphor of old wine in new bottles applies.

To illustrate, here is the blunt version of the Christian view of the 9/11 atrocities, as delivered by Jerry Falwell shortly after the event:

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.' (700 Club, 9/14/2001)

Here is Haldane's elegantly euphemized presentation of the exact same conclusion:

Mankind's inherited fallenness leads to a darkening of the intellect and a disturbance of the passions which, particularly when raised to social and cultural levels, make great evils possible. (p. 121)

Do note that the chapter featuring this sentence references Falwell's statement and discusses the 9/11 attacks, so I am not distorting the context.

The flip side of the elegance of Haldane's prose is the way in which it obscures the human reality in vaporous abstractions -- a defect refreshingly absent from Falwell's in-your-face version.

I think it is incumbent on us to imagine the terror and pain of the people killed and maimed on 9/11, and that of those they left behind, when weighing statements like this. We need to put nice phrases aside and ask whether, on a starkly human level, we are prepared to accept a god that "lifts his protection" and permits such suffering to happen. Is this truly what an `intelligent person' should expect from omniscience, omnipresence, and perfect love? Haldane's answer is yes: sometimes god feels the need to make a point about larger socio-political trends, and that may require snuffing out a few thousand individuals. For reasons Haldane fails to state, god couldn't write a pamphlet in the DNA of a fish, render a booming statement from the sky, send a messenger of absolutely unambiguous origins, etc. No, the omniscient and loving god chose 9/11 to register his feelings on gays, abortions, and shellfish consumption.

None of which serves to refute the cosmology, of course. Reality may be as Haldane believes it to be, but if so, this book presents no positive evidence for it. The "theory" of social and historical change outlined above is entirely unfalsifiable. If (say) Spain, Canada, and Belgium suffer no apparent decline as a result of legalizing gay marriage, it will just mean god is back to his mysterious ways again. Or that it was metaphorical after all, or that god has only delayed his wrath, or that their transgression is its own punishment somehow, or what have you.

Stylistically, this is a good read, but a lovely writing style does not erase the nastiness of the cosmology, or fill in its holes. Well-phrased nonsense is still nonsense.

An evenhanded treatment.......2004-12-10

Philosophy professor John Haldane presents An Intelligent Person's Guide To Religion, a quite scholarly and informative discussion that strives to clarify exactly what atheists deny and theists believe. Individual chapters address the fundamental cosmic questions of death, the meaning of life, value and purpose to existence, the implications of history, the doubting philosophers and more all as applying to religion. An evenhanded treatment, An Intelligent Person's Guide To Religion provides an excellent starting point and reference for theological debate and is highly recommended for its literate, sensitive, and matter-of-fact treatment of passionately charged subjects.

A good discussion of life after death.......2004-05-13

John Haldane's brief book suffers a little from being about too many things at once, including the nature of scientific explanation, the objectivity of values and the meaning of history, not to mention the more obviously religious themes. Whether or not this book manages to persuade you that being an intelligent person might require you, for the sake of sheer consistency, to seek religious instruction from believers, it does clarify a number of issues in a crisp and attractive way.

In particular, the chapter on the very idea of life after death has struck me as easily the best short discussion of what might be involved in such continued - and transformed - existence in the hereafter. Cautious not to indulge in a fantasy of boring heavenly bliss, Haldane remains reticent about the precise shape of the life to come as Christians have looked forward to it over the centuries. Instead, he ponders the general conditions such life would have to fulfil to count (1) as recognisably human life; (2) as the life of a particular person identifiable here and now; and (3) as life worth anticipating and striving for. Unlike much other writing on the same subject, even of a more openly apologetic kind, Haldane's chapter also concentrates on how life after death is supposed to develop and perfect what we already care about most from our earthly perspective. In other words, Haldane argue that our life here on the one hand and our participation in God's own bliss after death on the other are best seen in terms of a single goal.

An excellent introduction to RL and its relationship to L........2003-07-14

It has often been said that the likes of love and humour are best enjoyed and that any attempt to analyse what makes them tick tends to stop them working. It could be argued that this book comes very close to demonstrating that religion is also in this category.

Professor Haldane is a very lucid writer and he presents his arguments very clearly. Consequently, it is easy to see that his intention is to present a religious "Theory of everything" that lays claim to being able to explain all aspects of the human condition. A key tool that he uses in this endeavour is his concept of "Religious Logic" (RL) and a formal theory of this could be developed. After all, such things have been done before.

Since Galileo won the battle about the Earth being in orbit around the sun, religion has been retreating from rational logical arguments into the shadowy areas of mystery where the unknown reigns supreme. It has had to do this because the scientific method has proved its superiority over Biblical revelation in so many ways and tends not to make claims that it can't substantiate. Haldane's RL rejects all this and presents its own formalism for understanding the world. Inevitably, those of his intelligent readership who are familiar with conventional logic (L) will compare this with RL and, in so doing, they will provide themselves with access to one of the delights that ownership of this book can bestow.

Take, for example, Haldane's "proofs" of the existence of God. His first RL argument is essentially as follows: Michael Behe said in his book (Darwin's Black Box) that a biological structure is "irreducibly complex" if it cannot be produced by incremental improvements to an initial function "which continues to work by the same mechanism".

This "Argument from Biochemistry" isn't powerful enough for Haldane so he proceeds to "strengthen it by an RL decree":

HALDANE: "as one who sympathises with the older medieval ambition to arrive at conclusive proofs I am inclined to treat it in the stronger way summarised as follows.."

So: Galileo's insistence that "sympathy" and "inclination" should be specifically excluded from the scientific method in favour of objective measurement is swept aside, the humble (but interesting) bacterial flagellum is irreducibly complex and, in consequence, God is proved to exist. Such is the power of RL theory.

In taking this step, Haldane rushes in where Behe (and presumably Angels) fear to tread. We now know that there is strong evidence that the bacterial flagellum evolved from the Type III secretory system via an intermediate structure that provided the dual functions of secretion and propulsion. Consequently, by virtue of his "which continues to work by the same mechanism" Behe can shrug and walk off to try (yet again) to find an instance of his irreducible complexity elsewhere. However, Haldane fails to provide a similar "escape caveat" and his RL claims that such counter arguments do not, and cannot exist, are easily refuted by a quick Web search.

His other "proof" is also flawed. He argues, in effect, that the theory of evolution can't explain Adam's existence as a biologically modern human. This of course, is true but only RL concludes from this that the theory of evolution is wrong. L does things the other way around.

The RL case for superiority over L and all things scientific continues in a similar fashion throughout the rest of the book and it makes fascinating reading. Especially the chapter on evil where RL claims that the darker side of sex is a consequence of apple stealing in Eden and that Dawkins' Selfish Gene L theory can't explain it. In consequence, I strongly recommend this book to all intelligent readers who are interested in the relationship between RL and L and which of these should be their guide in conducting the affairs of life. Haldane's lucid style makes the answer to this very important question very easy to arrive at.

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Philosophy for the Human World

Scruton the Apologist

Bland and tasteless

angelo alright

Excellent Introduction

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy
Roger Scruton
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140275169

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In An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy, Roger Scruton aims to present neither a history nor a survey of the subject (goals he's already met in his Modern Philosophy and A Short History of Modern Philosophy). Rather, he attempts to make philosophy interesting by showing why it is interesting to him. Thus the book's 12 short chapters deal not only with philosophy's old standards--truth, time, freedom, God--but also with topics that not all philosophers would regard as central, such as sex and music. The views of other philosophers peek through from time to time: several pages are devoted to savaging the French historian Michel Foucault and the American jurist Richard Posner, while the influences of Scruton's philosophical heroes, Kant and Wittgenstein, are detectable everywhere. Still, Scruton's primary concern is to present the problems and lay out their possible solutions as he sees them. True to the standards of the Anglo-American tradition of philosophy to which he declares allegiance, Scruton writes clearly, precisely, and honestly. At times he can be unnecessarily cagey: there is no telling, for example, on the basis of his chapter on God whether he in fact believes in God. But for the most part he is forthright, even when espousing controversial positions, such as claiming a uniquely privileged moral status for heterosexual monogamy. All in all, the intelligent person who reads Scruton's book can expect to learn how another intelligent person, who has thought long and hard, views philosophy. --Glenn Branch

Book Description

"Philosophy--the 'love of wisdom'--can be approached in two ways: 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.

Customer Reviews:

Philosophy for the Human World.......2006-05-08

Roger Scruton is a rarity: an analytic philosopher who writes superbly and insists that philosophy is relevant to human concerns. (He is also a mildly obnoxious conservative polemicist, but that's a different issue.) His book "An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy" is made up of excellent short essays on ethics, the subject/object distinction, time, sexuality, music, God, and history. The essays are linked by Scruton's conviction that the role of philosophy is to analyze and vindicate the "human world," i.e., the world as conceived and experienced by humans. This world is populated with persons -- subjects, not objects -- capable of reasoned dialogue, intersubjective response, freedom, transcendence, and morality. Scruton contrasts the "human world" with the "scientific world" of cause and effect, where impersonal objects obey impersonal laws. While giving science its due, Scruton believes that conceiving of persons as objects in a scientific world is an intellectual mistake and a source of demoralization.

Scruton is a fantastic writer, and does a great job of conveying the excitement of philosophy. I knocked off one star, however, for three reasons. First, he never offers an explanation of how it is possible for the human world to exist alongside the scientific world. Second, he tends to assert his views rather than to argue for them. Finally, at points his book is far too abbreviated: I would defy anyone, for example, to make sense of Wittgenstein's "private language" argument on the basis of Scruton's two-page summary. However, these are quibbles. "An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy" would be a great book for any undergraduate or layman who wants to know what philosophy is all about. After reading it, he might even be tempted to tackle Spinoza, Wittgenstein and Kant -- a fitting tribute to Scruton's gifts as a populizer and writer!

Scruton the Apologist.......2006-03-21

Roger Scruton is a polemical kind of philosopher, in many ways similar in style to John Searle. When Scruton does philosophy, it's a joy to read.

But as others have complained, the philosophy in this book is a frame for Scruton to do Christian apologetics. If that's what one wants, it's not a bad book. Personally, Scruton's Christianity doesn't have much appeal for me. And the philosophical issues can get sidelined.

If you're really interested in philosophy, Scruton's "Modern Philosophy" is a better place to look. No Christian apologetics, just philosophy. It's both an introduction and survey with Scruton's usual acerbic comments. Personally, the work is directed more toward intermediate philosophy readers than naive ones. But as a general introduction and survey, Scruton does himself very well.

For a basic and broader introduction to philosophy, Robert Solomon's "Introducing Philosophy" with original texts and commentary is certainly to be preferred, but the price is outrageous.

Bland and tasteless .......2005-08-28

I have a confession to make: This book ended up in my wastebasket after I got about two-thirds of the way through it. Why? As a bibliophile with a strong interest in philosophy, I found this book much too light for my tastes. It begins on a fairly high note, and there are some interesting sections (I found the discussion on Fichte to be very enlightening), but as one gets further on in the work, it grows bland, tasteless, and seems more and more to be filled with empty rhetoric. Having said that, I have considerable respect for professor Scruton; despite his rather conservative views, I realize that he is a first-rate philosopher and writer. His book on Modern Philosophy is in fact masterfully written and occupies a place in my library. I have delved into it many times, and learned a lot from it. But this book misses the mark and is sure to disappoint those who are looking for meat rather than fluff.

The preferred alternative introduction to philosophy is the perennial favorite, by Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy, published in 1912. Russell's book is the one I would recommend for all inquiring minds. It is a little masterpiece.

angelo alright.......2005-04-29

I read this book for the first time when I had been studying philosphy for about six months. at the time I liked it, with my limited knowledge of the subject. rereading it now Im not so sure. Ok, Scruton writes good, and has a lot of points to make, and I agree on many of them. What annoys me greatly, and not just about Scruton, but also with very many of the anglo-american philosophers are their understanding of so-called continental philosophy. His short account of Foucault in this book shows almost no understanding at all of Foucaults ideas. Its plain dumb, like many other "anglo-american" readings of "continental" philosophy. spare me the self-referentially inconsistent arguments...sorry the outburst but its way off the point that Foucault, Derrida and others are trying to make.

To get back to the book, I still think its ok in many ways, but it needs to be read along with another book as counterpoint.

Excellent Introduction.......2002-12-01

Roger Scruton is one of the UK's best-known philosophers, and a conservative to boot. Unlike many philosophers, Scruton writes well. He alternates between weighty tomes and books for the common man. Like his other works pitched to the level the common man, AN INTELLIGENT PERSON'S GUIDE TO PHILOSOPHY is simple, but not simplistic.

This work is a joy to read. Scruton - whose primary intellectual debt is to Kant and Wittgenstein - discusses a number of the central themes in philosophy. It is something of an "opinionated introduction." While Scruton wants to explain the issue and give an overview to the debate, he wants to provide answers as well. Take for example the question of skepticism. Introductory works on philosophy often go into excessive detail about spoons in water, color blindness, placing your frozen hand in hot water, etc. Skepticism becomes the "default" position. Scruton turns the tables. As he notes, as long as one starts from the Cartesian "inside out" approach to the mind, it is extremely hard to "connect" the mind to an external world. However, Wittgenstein's argument against "private language" provides a cogent rejoinder: how could one speak of sensations if there is not some public language? Whether Wittgenstein's thought leads to a different kind of subjectivism is another question. (I'm no expert on Wittgenstein, but I'm reading a work by Brand Blanshard who refuses to discuss the later Wittgenstein on the ground that his jottings are open to so many understandings that not even the experts can confidently expound them.)

This is an excellent introduction to philosophy, which will encourage readers who have minimal philosophy training to study more. I think Searle's MIND, LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY; and Gilson's THE UNITY OF PHILOSOPHICAL EXPERIENCE would make excellent follow-up works. Scruton's MODERN PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION AND SURVEY covers similar ground as the book under review, but in much more detail.

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An Intelligent Person's Guide to History
John Vincent
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1585677213

Book Description

John Vincent has often been accused of political incorrectness in his writings about history. In this controversial study of history, Professor Vincent goes to the very heart of the complex issues raised by the subject. In 1928 Bernard Shaw wrote his "Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism". Nearly 70 years later, in a simliarly poelmical tract, Vincent makes no such concessions to feminist sensibilities or to the politics of the left. The text provides a comprehensive examination of the philosophy and evolution of history. It explores notions of historical evidence, meaning, the concept of historical imagination, morality and history, causality and bias, and hindsight. This expanded paperback edition includes an account by the author of the critical reception that greeted the book's original publication, and the controversy that it generated

INTEL PERSONS GUIDE MODERN IRELAND (Intelligent Person's Guide) (Intelligent Person's Guide)

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INTEL PERSONS GUIDE MODERN IRELAND (Intelligent Person's Guide) (Intelligent Person's Guide)
John Waters
Manufacturer: Duckworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Classics (Intelligent Person's Guide Series)

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An Intelligent Person's Guide to Classics (Intelligent Person's Guide Series)
Peter Jones
Manufacturer: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Fascism

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An Intelligent Person's Guide to Fascism
Richard Griffiths
Manufacturer: Duckworth Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Product Description

Richard Griffiths avoids the stereotypes that have plagued the study of fascism and assesses its real legacy in the second half of the twentieth century. Griffiths tackles fascism at its most confusing, when movements merged and the rhetoric of compromise was in full swing. With modern scholarship, and the willingness to bring new ideas to the table, Griffiths challenges all notions of the history and influence of fascism.

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Art (Intelligent Person's Guides)

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Highly recommended for students of modern art

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Art (Intelligent Person's Guides)
Stephen Farthing
Manufacturer: Duckworth Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0715629441

Book Description

Today it is not the audience, the galleries, or the funders who are the problem in modern art, it is the artists. Stephen Farthing, an artist writing from an artistâ€™s perspective, argues that his profession is an organism under constant attack from itself. It creates both stunning works and crass tabloid pieces that pander to the media. In this book, Farthing takes a critical look at his colleagues, offering a radical new approach to art which shuns art historians, connoisseurs and postmodernism. Taking the reader from Eric Gill to Damien Hirst, and from Goering in Nazi German to Saatchi in 1999, he paints a picture of modern art as artists see it---In this book, Farthing takes a critical look at his colleagues, offering a radical new approach to art which shuns art historians, connoisseurs and postmodernism.an art for everyone to enjoy.

Customer Reviews:

Highly recommended for students of modern art.......2001-11-09

An Intelligent Person's Guide To Modern Art is the latest book in the "An Intelligent Person's Guide To..." series by Duckworth Publishing, which includes volumes on Ethics, Philosophy, Modern Culture, and many more topics. In this informative survey and critique, artist and author Stephen Farthing argues that professional art is its own worst enemy, as many artists create what he considers "tabloid art" that panders to the lowest common denominator. Calling for artists to take control of publicity rather than let it control them, An Intelligent Person's Guide To Modern Art holds back nothing, as I offers a fiery, determined look at the triumphs and foibles of the artistic world today. An Intelligent Person's Guide To Modern Art is a refreshingly candid and highly thought-provoking, persuasive manifesto, enhanced with a four-page insert of black-and-white photographs. Highly recommended for students of modern art, as well as art history and theory.

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Post-War Britain (Intelligent Person's Guide)

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An Intelligent Person's Guide to Post-War Britain (Intelligent Person's Guide)
Alan Sked
Manufacturer: Gerald Duckworth & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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