Roger Scruton on scientism, communism, and freedom

[@ManInTheBigHat]

“The human soul is not nourished on transitions. It’s nourished on permanent possessions.” Rodger Scruton, thank you very much.

[@stueyapstuey4235]

Hmm - if one believes in the soul, then one believes, one supposes, that it is spiritual and eternal. So, 'nourishment' is a kind of anthropomorphic metaphor - the spirit is fed like the body is fed (Where is the nourishment digested, in that spiritual non-body?). Now, if all this time is eternal, then the 'transitions' are as much a part of the past as the 'permanent' stuff, and if you have a 'human soul' (righteous, eternal etc.) then, you're probably better placed to nourish (sic.) on all of the past, rather than just the (oops!) cherry picked permanent stuff (still sounds ghoulishly vampiric). Time bound human subjects would be too busy getting and spending to be worried about all that. Frankly, the statement is sentimental gibberish - 'permanent possessions'!

[@merlingeikie]

@@stueyapstuey4235 Ah, no Sir, you miss the point, being so busy making assumptions and in your 'intellectual' derogatory over-reach, it is you indeed who is spouting the very inane gibberish, that you would hear from others. Btw using an pseudonym negates any sincerity to your remarks. stuey

[@merlingeikie]

@@stueyapstuey4235 I think you stewed far too long.

[@rentaghostokish5628]

epic hair day!

[@sancal7013]

The New Atlantis' uniform is cool too.

[@Marcoshary]

Rentaghost okish :)

[@veritas5078]

He’s British

[@Ketannabis]

I love Roger Scruton. God bless you.

[@EdMcF1]

The esteemed philosopher, a champion of liberty and culture for decades, does unfortunately give the visual impression of having just been dragged through a hedge backwards.

[@99tubalcain]

Works for Zizek.

[@intp-a6808]

Brilliance often looks like that...

[@stueyapstuey4235]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'champion of liberty'. Professor Scruton is a little England conservative. His only support for liberty is in the form of the rights and privileges of ye Olde England. That isn't liberty.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

@@stueyapstuey4235 on the contrary, it's the only kind of real liberty there is. Liberty can only exist within limits. It is not tyranny that destroys freedom, but licence--i.e. unlimited anarchy. Despite the modern profusion of 'human rights' and 'freedoms' which we 'enjoy', our ancestors were, paradoxically, much freer than we are, in all the ways that matter.

[@merlingeikie]

@@stueyapstuey4235 Ah stey again, spouting loudly your ignorance, .......ha ha good joke stuey Btw too frightened to have a real name ha.

[@lifewasgiventous1614]

He’s a Absolutely true in what he says, science try’s to tell us art is beautiful because it’s symmetry, or asymmetry etc...it’s always reduced to some sort of physics, when in reality that in and of itself is an interpretation that’s predicated on scientism and it’s world frame.

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

Life was Given to us I don't find a structuralist approach inherently offensive, within the larger framework of a Biblical understanding of Creation. But there is a certain hubris in Man supposing that, given sufficient time and effort, he could discover all the laws and proportions which explain why things are the way they are. And if all that mattered to our understanding of the universe were Matter, life itself wouldn't matter in the end.

[@PI_AYM4NN]

Absolutně geniální filozof.

[@hanxqiang]

A real intellectual from the West.

[@merlingeikie]

Yup indeed, and lets hope we hear some springing up from the East, we need them!

[@davidhussell8581]

We, of the west, are all indebted to this excellent English philosopher.

[@tiagoanchiieta]

Very good!

[@TheCrusaderRabbits]

Great man

[@lolar6085]

Thank you for sharing. So in the end his point in writing this novel seems to be saying that we humans need to nurture the spirit in order to get meaning and some kind of certainty. The values that help to achieve this are: loyalty, comminmetn and truth. In other words : less experiences and more meaningful.

[@russellbaston974]

Lola r i

[@abh0029]

Engaging all my senses to understand you

[@mandykhoo2473]

this guy will end up being studied secretly after everything he has predicted comes true...

[@merlingeikie]

@@99hoolio Already has, 50 books and a couple of plays and operas, he just died RIP.

[@mydh122]

If he combed his hair a little better, he would look sort of like Robert Redford.

[@99tubalcain]

Lucky he doesn't think like Rob.

[@sancal7013]

Moreover, Rob is not a Sir

[@user-ju7ze9to4k]

mydh122 little less and kieth Richards...

[@Apriluser]

mydh122 Or David Bowie?

[@michaelsorensen8670]

Hopefully scientism will soon be in the dustbin of history. Thank you Roger.

[@merlingeikie]

As long as science is around, scientism will predate on the intellectually less able and shine in the reflected glow of the truth that science sometimes can muster.

[@michaelsorensen8670]

Maybe but only if people do not heed what the great scientist Freeman Dyson said. "Do not make science into a religion nor make religion into a science". These are wise words because as freeman Dyson says. "As long as you do not make that mistake then science and religion are than in harmony".

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

michael sorensen I share your hope. However it may take require the Second Coming of Christ to accomplish that. Human fascination with the playthings which God has given us never ends, but gratitude to Him for them ends all too quickly.

[@tommore3263]

We have lost intellectual sight of what Aristotle , the father of modern science, but a philosopher first called final cause, the end or purpose of things. Everything is actually understood by their natural ends and purposes, which becomes a conscious reality to us. The natural sciences ultimate explain nothing. They provide increasingly elaborate descriptions, and we can apply this knowledge to projects of life which are the true final or meaningful causes. Our free wills as professor Ed Feser shows, just like the universals of knowledge themselves in our rational minds, are not reducible to the merely "physical" which is a profound conceptual limitation and imposed horizon suitable in its fields and applications for PURPOSE.. meaning. Love. Aristotle's realistic metaphysics as we received it through the towering intellectual giant, monk scholar, Thomas Aquinas, gives us the foundations of experience and knowledge which Ockham in the 1400's missed, Hume laughably missed and Kant confused , leading to postmodern insanity offered as vision. Change is the actualization of a potential by a thing already in act. Like a cue ball hitting a billiard ball actualizing its "potential" (Aristotle's genius term) to move. An infinite series of such acts in the here and now to cause reality is an impossibility because it would always require one more layer of actualization. Hence the western arrival at the nature of transcendent "Actus Purus", Pure Actuality.. .BEING itself in which we find ourselves participating as gift. Such a BEING literally IS BEING Himself.. the ground of all potentialities and intention.. why such a being is a "Personal it" , which also explains how a billions year old cosmos from the start was ordered towards conscious, free willed, rational hence SPIRITUAL beings. The BIG picture we in whom we live and have our being. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end... both present. Philosophers Ed Feser and Peter Kreeft are really good at explaining this common sense based realism that actually formed western civilization in our communities and the first universities like Oxford, Paris, etc. This final cause is the only rational possibility and it is why we are drawn to what transcends the merely material ... beauty, truth, goodness... the non material ground of being. Love. It is surprisingly easy to understand these things in works like those of Feser and Kreeft. I'll post a link. Clear sanity is achievable. www.peterkreeft.com/audio.htm www.peterkreeft.com/audio.htm

[@prithuhalder4777]

The host looks like an older Ali Abdaal. 😂

[@JarrodCook93]

Boris Johnson was inspired by this man's hair.

[@roughdraught153]

Beethoven is resurrected!

[@stueyapstuey4235]

4:00 mins - very revealing. 'We need to know what human beings are...' etc. So, a science of the humanities is fallacious, and the sciences that explain human biology isn't 'humanist' enough, so we should look for an aesthetic of 'taste' based on human choices, and the culture of learned debate that feeds into blah blah. The arts are just another human practice, of no more value (though with different values) than sport, or recreational gardening.

[@merlingeikie]

Ah stuey the hiding intermalectual again.......... the blah blah is really his only forte.

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

Stuey apStuey I don't disagree with your last statement or your general drift for that matter, despite my own artistic interests. There is also great dignity in the labour of those who perform humble services necessary for our physical survival. We needn't put either classical music or astrophysics on a pedestal. All these things proceed equally from our mandate to 'fill the earth and subdue it' (Genesis 1:28)--------------which we have often misunderstood and grossly abused.

[@fishzima]

A fan of Mr.Scruton, but maybe get a decent suit and some shirt/tie pairings? Cause its not aesthetically pleasing.

[@JEKAZOL]

Guy thinks we can't be fooled that he does this to his hair on purpose for that 'I'm a genius who can't do simple things like brush my mop' look. That is bent. And lame.

[@gennypiero9403]

The same nitrogen scilly lick because rhinoceros weekly chew sans a momentous wallet. panicky, extra-large extra-small exuberant request

[@etienne7774]

People need Jesus Christ, God in flesh, the objective Truth, without whom one cannot make sense of reality nor make it to heaven. Philosophers and writers do not give answers, you are right, they ask questions. For answers, you need the Holy KJB.

[@merlingeikie]

Questions are a good start. Jesus himself also taught with questions, and elicited answers.

[@tammesikkema5322]

@@merlingeikie you are right. But He asked questions that were meant to be answered. I feel like some (just some) philosophers are asking questions they do not want answered at all.

[@tommore3263]

Philosophy was powerfully introduced into the west with brilliant clarity and insight as Thomas Aquinas "baptized" Aristotle's brilliant realism , kicking off the most dynamic culture in world history as well as modern science. Your protestant "fideistic" premises are false and self refuting. Faith is above and is the ground of reason and all true knowledge as the Christian mainstream principle of the Unity of Truth affirms. As our universe is held in being it is impossible for the right use of reason, a true scientific fact, like the Big Bang discovery of Fr. Georges Lemaitre for instance, or a revealed truth by God, author of both, to EVER be in conflict. Your disconnected view is a major part of the rejection of the philosophical clarity and beautiful rationality of our existence in BEING and REASON, the GOd of traditional Christian revelation.

[@steveboyd3551]

His greatest contribution is his utter lack of self-awareness.

[@acropolisnow9466]

Meaning what exactly?

[@chel3SEY]

Classic Scruton--woolly, wordy, vague, roundabout, unclear, grey, mushy.

[@markcreemore5879]

Or, a likelier explanation...you are a dumbass.

[@merlingeikie]

No Sir, that's you. He indeed is crystal clear. He has a name, you hide and sniffle like a frightened illiterate rabbit.

[@kungfufighting7278]

A madman who didn't even know how to comb his hair and wanted to explain the world. A ridiculous man with a simian and perverse appearance as his character. A false defender of freedom who defended the dictatorship of the monopolies and oligopolies of the minority of billionaires that dominate the world. A mystifier followed by a legion of criminals, demented, racist, neo-Nazis and depraved people who define themselves as "conservatives".

[@kungfufighting7278]

Sir Roger Scrotum's words sound like someone farting at a table over lunch or dinner. He was not an intellectual, he was a phony of philosophy. This is the legacy of this moral microbe called Sir Roger Scrotum.

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

@@kungfufighting7278 I don't know much of him or claim to be a fan. However, I haven't seen you offer anything better. (Matthew 7:2) 'For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.'

[@ganshrio7336]

NO SUCH THING AS SCIENTISM

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

gan shrio Understood as worshipful reverence for human scientific endeavor, is it not one of the world's leading RELIGIONS today? Its central commandment: 'Do not acknowledge any truth unless it has been ascertained by the scientific method.' Consequently many avenues of inquiry must be closed. Scientism is to the soul as eating sawdust is to the mouth.

[@tommore3263]

Certainly not in your conceptual grasp. That defines a void in your case.