Roger Scruton
Philosopher of beauty, music and the sacred; argued that beauty is a real value, not mere taste.
12 videos analysed · 42 quotes checked word for word · updated 2026-10-22
Key facts
- Born in Buslingthorpe, Lincolnshire, in 1944; died in London on 12 January 2020, aged 75. Wikipédia 2025 · Roger Scruton
- He also composed operas (The Minister, 1994; Violet, 2005) and wrote on music, Wagner and wine. Wikipédia 2025 · Roger Scruton
- The philosopher Paul Guyer wrote that after Wollheim he was the most significant British aesthetician. Wikipédia 2025 · Roger Scruton
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe was an Anglican and defended the religious way of life. He also offered an 'argument from beauty': natural beauty can reveal God's presence. He did not claim proof. In a 2000 interview he said he had 'worked my way back to something like the God idea', not the God of organised religion; he calls his faith a 'God feeling' that the world is incomplete and depends on something greater that words cannot capture, and says he has no systematic theology.
- For him God is first a feeling: the world is not complete in itself, it depends on something greater that we cannot put into words. Video 2000 · Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and…
- Like Kant, he holds that we understand the transcendent only negatively, at the edge of thought. The model is meeting another person: I address someone who addresses me from a place I could never be. Video 2018 · Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan…
- We meet God only as the spark in the most deprived person, and he sees no reason to go further. He admits he has no systematic theology. Video 2018 · Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan…2
- He says he worked his way back to something like the God idea: it gives him a place from which to stand in judgment on himself. Video 2000 · Roger Scruton on time, death,…
How can a good God allow so much suffering?
He traces all evil to human choice, and says it is not his business to produce a theodicy.
A God that cannot be put into words is too vague to be worth believing in.
He concedes that he has no systematic theology and cannot answer every question. For him we know the transcendent only negatively, at the edge of thought.
He defended 'cognitive dualism': two ways of understanding the world, the scientific and the personal, neither reducible to the other. Reviewers say this is not a Cartesian soul.
- The encounter between an I and a you is meeting a point of view I could never occupy; I can reach it only by leaps of the imagination, a knowledge different from ordinary empirical knowledge. Video 2018 · Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan…
Neuroscience will show that persons are only brains, and that talk of minds belongs to an old theory.
He answers that meeting another person is meeting a point of view I could never occupy, which I can reach only by leaps of the imagination: a knowledge different from ordinary empirical knowledge.
In the Gifford Lectures he stresses 'the relation between freely choosing persons' and says the scientific picture leaves it out. He does not state a position on determinism there. In a 2018 conversation he described his ideal of freedom as order revealed through free gestures, like a Bach fugue where every note is necessary yet free.
He defended a deontological view, against Peter Singer's utilitarianism, in Animal Rights and Wrongs (2000).
He held that rational argument goes only so far and that faith is a leap beyond reason.
- Faith is a leap over the edge of reason, but not irrational, any more than falling in love is irrational. Wikipédia 2025 · Roger Scruton
- All religions have basic, rote-learned prayers (Hail Mary, Shema). They help people overcome the distance between themselves and God. Video 2017 · Roger Scruton - The True, the…
It is wrong to believe on insufficient evidence.
He answers that faith is a leap over the edge of reason, but not an irrational one, any more than falling in love is irrational.
No sourced position yet on: Source of knowledge, Certainty, Status of morality, Meaning of life, Human nature.
On the big questions
Does God exist?Theism
A practising Anglican who gave the 2010 Gifford Lectures, 'The Face of God'. He says we meet God only as the spark in the most deprived person, and that there is no need to go further.
- For him God is first a feeling: the world is not complete in itself, it depends on something greater that we cannot put into words. Video 2000 · Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and…
- Like Kant, he holds that we understand the transcendent only negatively, at the edge of thought. The model is meeting another person: I address someone who addresses me from a place I could never be. Video 2018 · Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan…
- We meet God only as the spark in the most deprived person, and he sees no reason to go further. He admits he has no systematic theology. Video 2018 · Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan…2
- He says he worked his way back to something like the God idea: it gives him a place from which to stand in judgment on himself. Video 2000 · Roger Scruton on time, death,…
How can a good God allow so much suffering?
He traces all evil to human choice, and says it is not his business to produce a theodicy.
A God that cannot be put into words is too vague to be worth believing in.
He concedes that he has no systematic theology and cannot answer every question. For him we know the transcendent only negatively, at the edge of thought.
Mixed : Freedom has a price: evil does not contradict God
The question on the site: all the argumentsIs the mind the brain?The mind is not matter
Closest camp: persons cannot be reduced to brain science, though he rejects a separate soul-substance.
- The encounter between an I and a you is meeting a point of view I could never occupy; I can reach it only by leaps of the imagination, a knowledge different from ordinary empirical knowledge. Video 2018 · Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan…
Neuroscience will show that persons are only brains, and that talk of minds belongs to an old theory.
He answers that meeting another person is meeting a point of view I could never occupy, which I can reach only by leaps of the imagination: a knowledge different from ordinary empirical knowledge.
Should we believe without proof?Faith goes beyond
He called faith 'a leap over reason's edge', yet not irrational, 'any more than falling in love is irrational'. He defends learned, repeated prayers (Hail Mary, Shema) as a way across the distance to God.
- Faith is a leap over the edge of reason, but not irrational, any more than falling in love is irrational. Wikipédia 2025 · Roger Scruton
- All religions have basic, rote-learned prayers (Hail Mary, Shema). They help people overcome the distance between themselves and God. Video 2017 · Roger Scruton - The True, the…
It is wrong to believe on insufficient evidence.
He answers that faith is a leap over the edge of reason, but not an irrational one, any more than falling in love is irrational.
Do animals matter as much as we do?A duty of compassion
Closest camp: he held that rights carry duties, so animals cannot have human-style rights, but that we owe different duties to pets, farm animals and wild animals.
Criticizes : Speciesism: counting everyone's interests, whatever the species
The question on the site: all the argumentsIs beauty in the eye of the beholder?Beauty is in things
Closest camp: for the BBC film he defended the 'importance and transcendental nature of beauty', and held that natural beauty can point to God. He says good and bad in art are not mere taste (education must teach children to judge), that the rules of beauty are the byproduct of successful solutions, and that aesthetic and moral values are intertwined.
- Good and bad in art are not mere taste. If we do not teach children to judge and to tell lasting music from ephemera, we give up on education. Video 2016 · Roger Scruton - The Tyranny of…
- The rules of beauty are not laid down a priori. Classical style is the résumé of inherited knowledge, a grammar made of solutions that worked. Video 2014 · Roger Scruton: Architecture and…
- Aesthetic value cannot be explored far without falling into ethics: beauty and goodness are intertwined. Video 2014 · Roger Scruton: Architecture and…
- Art has a redemptive character and presents the spiritual truth of things. If it falsifies, or becomes propaganda or theory, it cannot console. Video 2019 · We talked to SIR ROGER SCRUTON,…2
Beauty is relative: ask a toad what beauty is.
He answers that good and bad in art are not mere taste, and that children must be taught to tell music of lasting value from the ephemeral.
Beauty pleases without any concept or rule, so it cannot have rules.
Answering a Kantian question, he says the rules of beauty are not laid down a priori: classical style is the résumé of inherited knowledge, a grammar of solutions that worked.
See 1 more objections
Taste is not a gift: it is a mark of social class.
Defends : We argue about beauty and educate our taste: so beauty concerns the object, not only the subjectMixed : The beautiful pleases all, without concept and without interest
The question on the site: all the argumentsCan science explain everything?True, but not everything
He said the popular scientific picture of humans leaves out the relation between free persons, 'wiping away the face of the world'. In 2014 he recalled that his generation looked for meaning in culture because science would not provide it.
- His generation looked for meaning in culture because science would not provide it. Science, and analytic philosophy, do not help with the great question of meaning. Video 2014 · Roger Scruton. Towards a humane…2
- Science describes events under universal laws, but it cannot capture concepts like responsibility, which arise from the relations between persons who address and answer each other. Video 2014 · Roger Scruton. Towards a humane…
Physics fixes all the facts, so science can in principle answer every question, meaning included.
He says science describes events under universal laws but leaves out the concepts we use for each other, such as responsibility, which come from the relations between persons. Science, like analytic philosophy, does not help with the question of meaning.
Are humans good by nature?Both at once
Closest camp: he sees human beings as free beings, close to what was meant by "made in the image of God", but imperfect: all evil comes from human choice, and people carry a basic resentment and anger that institutions and inherited customs must hold in check. He denies that people are simply made by their social conditions.
- Human beings are free, and that freedom can be abused. All evil in the world is traceable to human choice, whereas bad events that merely happen are not evil in themselves. Video 2000 · Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and…
- Human beings are imperfect. That is the very reason they need institutions to settle their conflicts without violence. Video 2018 · What Conservatism Really Means -…
- People have a basic resentment and anger. Inherited controls hold it back, and when they are swept away, violence follows. Video 2017 · Christina Hoff Sommers & Sir…
- People are not made by their social conditions: conditions are made by people. Any plan to remake human beings must reckon with basic truths about human nature. Video 2012 · Terry Eagleton in conversation…
Human beings could be different under transformed political conditions: that is a major reason to be a Marxist.
He answers that attempts to carry out that programme have always made things worse, perhaps because people are not created by political conditions but the other way round, and that this view forgets basic truths about human nature.
If evil comes from human freedom, then God, who gave that freedom, shares the responsibility.
He does not exonerate God and says a theodicy is not his business. He adds that freedom is a precondition of love, and that bad events are not evil: only what is done freely is.
In their words
the leap of faith itself – this placing of your life at God's service – is a leap over reason's edge
feelings that that this world is not complete in itself that there is something upon which it depends and towards which it tends which is greater than it but which we can't put into words
the true power of religion is that it makes death itself into that Final Redemption so that you do come home at the very moment when you leave all your sufferings behind
My heart is in the aesthetic dimension of being I always has been
1 more quotes
the classical venacular which I've really been defending is not a style it's a grammar
How the ideas evolved
Click a step for details1974Art and Imagination
His first aesthetics book argues that aesthetic interest means appreciating something for its own sake.
1979The Aesthetics of Architecture
He applies his philosophy of taste to buildings and city life.
1986Sexual Desire
A philosophical account of desire built on the idea of treating the other person as a self, not as a thing. Martha Nussbaum praised the attempt but said he did not apply his principle consistently.
1997The Aesthetics of Music
He extends his aesthetics to music, based on courses taught at Boston University.
2000Animal Rights and Wrongs
He defends duties toward animals (pets, working animals, wild animals) from a deontological view and rejects Peter Singer's utilitarian approach.
2000Beauty and Consolation
In a VPRO interview with Wim Kayzer he says philosophy satisfies but rarely consoles, and that he has 'worked his way back to something like the God idea'.
In their words« being satisfied intellectually is not the same as being consoled being consoled means being at one with something and finding your place of rest there »Philosophy satisfies the mind but rarely consoles; he owes most to Kant and Wittgenstein yet finds neither consoling. watch
« the philosophers that I've most in that I owe most to intellectually are K and Vicken Stein »He names Kant and Wittgenstein as the philosophers he owes most to. watch
« the true power of religion is that it makes death itself into that Final Redemption so that you do come home at the very moment when you leave all your sufferings behind »Sees the power of religion in turning death into a final homecoming. watch
2009Why Beauty Matters
He writes and presents a BBC Two film arguing for the importance and transcendental nature of beauty, and for restoring it to art, architecture and music.
2010The Face of God
In his Gifford Lectures he argues that a purely scientific picture leaves out the relation between free persons who meet face to face, and asks what we lose when we give up belief in God.
2012Culture as wisdom
Debating Terry Eagleton, he defends culture as practical wisdom to be passed on, not an ideology to debunk, and music as civilisation's greatest achievement after religion and science.
In their words« culture as we teach it in universities is or or aspires to be a form of wisdom that is to be imparted to people »Defends culture as a form of wisdom to be passed on, not an ideology to be debunked. watch
« I think of culture as a form of practical knowledge something which gives you a sense of uh what to do what to feel how to how to be towards other people »Culture is practical knowledge of what to feel and how to be with others. watch
« the greatest achievement of our civilization if you leave religion and science to one side has been music »Calls music the greatest achievement of civilisation after religion and science. watch
2014Towards a humane philosophy
He says analytic philosophy has valid arguments but does not address the question of meaning, and that science alone would not provide it.
In their words« there is meaning in things and if you work hard enough and in the right way you can extract it but that science won't get you there »Recalls how his generation sought meaning in culture, since science would not provide it. watch
« it doesn't help with these this great question of meaning »Respects analytic philosophy and its valid arguments but says it does not address the question of meaning. watch
2018God and beautiful buildings
He argues that belief in God makes for more beautiful architecture, because a community should begin with an act of consecration.
2018Apprehending the Transcendent
In Cambridge with Jordan Peterson he says we know the transcendent negatively, at the edge of thought, and meet God as a spark in the deprived.
In their words« I take a position which I attribute also to Kant that um that we have a very clear negative understanding of it »On the transcendent: we know it negatively, at the edge of thought, and must cross that boundary by other ways than thinking. watch
« when I address you I know that I'm addressing something which addresses me too but from a place where I could never be »Uses the I-you encounter as the model of transcendence: another person is a point of view I can reach only by imagination. watch
« That's what a culture is. It's the residue of all the things that people have thought worthwhile to preserve. »Defines culture as what people found worth preserving, and says teaching it reconnects us to what matters. watch
2019'My heart is in the aesthetic dimension'
In a late interview he says his real interest was always aesthetics and that art should redeem the human, not be propaganda.
In their words« I have a great Belief in the redemptive character of art I think art should not be propaganda »Believes art redeems the human; it should not be propaganda or angry protest. watch
« My heart is in the aesthetic dimension of being I always has been and My interest in philosophy grew out of that »Says his real interest has always been the aesthetic dimension, from which his philosophy grew. watch
« that actually beauty matters to them, even if they don't care much about art »Argues everyday beauty (rooms, clothes, a laid table) matters to everyone. watch
The arguments 4
The site's arguments they defend or criticize, and why. Click a title to see the full argument.
His own argument: we argue about beauty and try to educate taste, which makes sense only if the judgement is about the object and can be right or wrong.
Inspired by Kant, he argued beauty is a real, universal value rooted in our rational nature, while rejecting both pure subjectivism and pure objectivism as incomplete. Asked whether beauty's rules are given by nature, he replied that they are the byproduct of successful solutions, not laid down a priori.
He traces all evil to human choice, not to bad events, but adds that it is not his business to produce a theodicy and he does not exonerate God.
He rejected Peter Singer's utilitarian case for animal equality, saying it lacks real philosophical argument.
Allies and opponents
Immanuel KantInfluence
Following Kant, he held that humans have a transcendental, sacred core shown in their capacity for self-reflection. He names Kant and Wittgenstein as the philosophers he owes most to, and builds his view of the transcendent on Kant's 'negative understanding'.
G. E. M. AnscombeInfluence
Elizabeth Anscombe, with Michael Tanner, supervised his PhD.
Martha NussbaumSparring partner
Nussbaum praised the seriousness of Sexual Desire but criticised how he applied his principle of otherness.
Ludwig WittgensteinInfluence
He names Wittgenstein, with Kant, as the philosopher he owes most to, though he finds neither consoling to read.
Jordan PetersonClose
In their 2018 Cambridge dialogue they explore the transcendent together; Scruton describes it as known negatively, at the edge of thought, and meets God as a spark in the most deprived.
TTerry EagletonSparring partner
In their 2012 debate he opposed Eagleton's Marxist-inspired, debunking view of culture, while calling it a particularly intelligent version of that view.
Peter SingerDisagrees
He rejected Singer's utilitarian approach to animals, saying Singer's works contain little philosophical argument.
Closest and furthest
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All sources (36)
- Roger Scruton Wikipedia · 2025
- Why Beauty Matters Wikipedia (BBC Two, 28 November 2009) · 2009
- The Face of God (Gifford Lectures 2010) University of St Andrews · 2010
- Roger Scruton, Gifford Lectures giffordlectures.org · 2010
- The Soul of the World by Roger Scruton (review) Philosophers' Magazine · 2014 *
- Philosophy Minutes: Scruton on beauty Le Regard Libre · 2020 *
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- We talked to Sir Roger Scruton (Spotniks / Estado da Arte) YouTube · 2019
- We talked to Sir Roger Scruton (Spotniks / Estado da Arte) YouTube · 2019
- We talked to Sir Roger Scruton (Spotniks / Estado da Arte) YouTube · 2019
- We talked to SIR ROGER SCRUTON, the greatest living thinker of CONSERVATISM YouTube · 2019
- Roger Scruton - The True, the Good and the Beautiful YouTube · 2017
- Roger Scruton on time, death, and eternity (Beauty and Consolation, VPRO 2000) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan B. Peterson: Apprehending the Transcendent YouTube (Ralston College) · 2018
- What Conservatism Really Means - Roger Scruton in Conversation with Hamza Yusuf YouTube · 2018
- What Conservatism Really Means - Roger Scruton in Conversation with Hamza Yusuf YouTube · 2018
- Sir Roger Scruton / Dr. Jordan B. Peterson: Apprehending the Transcendent YouTube (Ralston College) · 2018
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Roger Scruton. Towards a humane Philosophy YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Roger Scruton. Towards a humane Philosophy YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Roger Scruton. Towards a humane Philosophy YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Roger Scruton - The True, the Good and the Beautiful YouTube (republication) · 2017
- Roger Scruton - The Tyranny of Pop Music YouTube (republication) · 2016
- Roger Scruton: Architecture and Aesthetic Education YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Roger Scruton: Architecture and Aesthetic Education YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Terry Eagleton in conversation with Roger Scruton (Intelligence Squared) YouTube (Intelligence Squared) · 2012
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Roger Scruton, Of Beauty and Consolation (Wim Kayzer, VPRO) YouTube (republication) · 2000
- Roger Scruton: Architecture and Aesthetic Education YouTube (republication) · 2014
- What Conservatism Really Means - Roger Scruton in Conversation with Hamza Yusuf YouTube · 2018
- Christina Hoff Sommers & Sir Roger Scruton: Free speech, philosophy, and art | VIEWPOINT YouTube (AEI) · 2017
- Terry Eagleton in conversation with Roger Scruton (Intelligence Squared) YouTube (Intelligence Squared) · 2012
- Terry Eagleton in conversation with Roger Scruton (Intelligence Squared) YouTube (Intelligence Squared) · 2012