An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy

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.

Roger Scruton's "An Intelligent Guide to Philosophy" is a fantastic book with a tremendous amount of interesting things to say but which at times is very hard to understand. The first chapter "Why?" delves into that word which gives rise to philosophy. We can answer that question by giving a cause, a reason (which might also be a cause) or something that makes an action intelligible, according to Scruton. Science gives causes of the first kind while philosophy, in the way the world currently is, "attempts to justify the other kinds of 'Why?' - the 'Why?' which looks for a reason, and the 'Why?' which looks for a meaning" (pg 25). This plays into a constant theme of Scruton's, "If this book has a message, it is that scientific truth has human illusion as its regular by-product, and that philosophy is our surest weapon in the attempt to rescue truth from this predicament" (pg 8). The next three chapters "Truth", "The Demon" and "Subject and Object" deal with truth, language and skepticism about the external world (and maybe some other subjects as well). This addresses Descartes's evil demon and the skepticism about the external world that has plagued modern philosophy since Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy" (1630). After dealing with these metaphysical/epistemological subjects, Scruton turns to questions of human nature and ethics in chapters 5 through 10. He has some very interesting things to say about what distinguishes humans from animals (language is important) and about the crucial need that religion has addressed for human beings. I can't resist: ".... the rational being lives in a condition of metaphysical loneliness" (pg 89). "The 'first person plural' of the religious rite overcomes this isolation and creates, for a brief but necessary moment, the sense that we stand together outside nature, sharing the subjective viewpoint which otherwise we know only as 'mine'" (pg 90). The chapter on morality has interesting things to say but I'm not sure it is philosophically sound. There is a chapter on "Sex" where he brings to bear the subject/object distinction that he has used since the beginning and which is very interesting. All in all, this book has, in my opinion, alot of wisdom and truth in it, alot of material in a small amount of space, but it is also difficult to follow at times (i.e. the chapters on "Time", "Morality" and "Music"). In the end, I couldn't put the book down because Scruton gets so much right, is surely brilliant and has clearly studied these subjects long and hard. And I also sympathize with his general aim (quoted above). ------ Greg Feirman

I thoroughly enjoyed Scruton's peregrinations through philosophy, at first because his declared purpose was to revive the subject as having merit in dealing with many questions that surface in the course of a day--those pesky Why questions, and secondly, because he is an excellent writer handling difficult topics. Reading it, especially his chapter on the relationship between the subject/object of consciousness, inspired me. I plan to explore it in my own reading and writing. Scruton writes clearly and lucidly concerning essential topics and he refers to previous philosophers, explicating on their works with apt expression. I trusted him as a tour guide.

This was an wonderfull book. I have no clue what blessings were bestowed on modern philosophy to warrant our having a man who delves into the inscrutibile genius of Kant be such a goddamned good writer and thinker as Scruton, but the fact remains; Scruton's prose sparkles like bubbles in champagne. The philosopher known of as Roger Scruton is exactly what philosophy needs to make itself relevant and worthwhile- a man who can write English like a novelist. This is surely the Tom Wolfe of Philosophy, much to the common readers benefit. Not only is his writing superb (especially for a philosopher), but I detect the tell tale signs of a genius in his work. Having read his other opuses to the field, I have detected enough theoretical creativity combined with the much needed pure doses of good common sense that I am commanded by my conscience to tell the reader that no matter how much I disagree with Mr. Scrutons theories, I see Scruton as being one of the names in that will fuel the next centuries political conservatism.

This was an wonderfull book. I have no clue what blessings were bestowed on modern philosophy to warrant our having a man who delves into the inscrutibile genius of Kant be such a goddamned good writer and thinker as Scruton, but the fact remains; Scruton's prose sparkles like bubbles in champagne. The philosopher known of as Roger Scruton is exactly what philosophy needs to make itself relevant and worthwhile- a man who can write English like a novelist. This is surely the Tom Wolfe of Philosophy, much to the common readers benefit. Not only is his writing superb (especially for a philosopher), but I detect the tell tale signs of a genius in his work. Having read his other opuses to the field, I have detected enough theoretical creativity combined with the much needed pure doses of good common sense that I am commanded by my conscience to tell the reader that no matter how much I disagree with Mr. Scrutons theories, I see Scruton as being one of the names in that will fuel the next centuries political conservatism.