originally published 1/13/2020
Sir Roger Scruton died on January 12, 2020. In this interview from 2015 (Volume 126 of the Journal), he talks about his book The Soul of the World. Scruton discusses the ways in which the sacred or religious sensibility is prefigured in aesthetic experiences and in our relationships to the world. In The Soul of the World, Scruton explores what sort of reality must exist in order for our relationships and our experiences to have meaning. Do merely physical causes account for our consciousness, our point of view? Can materialism satisfactorily explain our propensity to speak about things and to ask why? As Scruton argues, there is a soul and a face to the world around us which addresses us and to which we respond. Our responsibility results in an understanding of the world that stretches beyond mere explanation.
20 minutes
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