ISSN 2291-5079 Volume 6 | Issue 3 + 4 2019 Symposium on Roger Scruton's Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition COVER ART: Pieter Bruegel the Elder The (Great) Tower of Babel, c. 1563 Studies in Emergent Order and Organization oil on wood panel VOLUME 6 | ISSUE 3 + 4 2019 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Public Domain) IN THIS ISSUE EDITORIAL BOARDS HONORARY FOUNDING EDITORS EDITORS SYMPOSIUM ON ROGER SCRUTON'S Joaquin Fuster David Emanuel Andersson* CONSERVATISM: AN INVITATION University of California, Los Angeles (editor-in-chief) TO THE GREAT TRADITION David F. Hardwick* RMIT University, Vietnam The University of British Columbia William Butos Lawrence Wai-Chung Lai (deputy editor) Editorial Introduction to a Symposium on University of Hong Kong Trinity College Roger Scruton’s Conservatism—An Invitation Frederick Turner Laurent Dobuzinskis* to the Great Tradition ...............................1 University of Texas at Dallas (deputy editor) Martin Beckstein Simon Fraser University Leslie Marsh* Conservatism: Empirical or Metaphysical? .............3 (managing editor) Eno Trimçev The University of British Columbia Conservatism, Value and Social Philosophy ...........15 assistant managing editors: Kevin Mulligan Thomas Cheeseman Dean Woodley Ball Roger Scruton on the Prehistory of Liberalism ........21 Alexander Hamilton Institute David D. Corey CONSULTING EDITORS The Toryism of exile: Culture, Politics and the Corey Abel Peter G. Klein Quest for ‘home’ in Sir Roger Scruton’s Denver Baylor University Elegiac Conservatism ...............................31 Thierry Aimar Paul Lewis Noël O’Sullivan Sciences Po Paris King’s College London Conservatism Then and Now ....................... 45 Nurit Alfasi Ted G. Lewis Ben Gurion University Technology Assessment Group Kieron O'Hara of the Negev Salinas, CA Scruton on Conservatism in Germany and France .... 52 Theodore Burczak Joseph Isaac Lifshitz Denison University The Shalem College Efraim Podoksik Gene Callahan Jacky Mallett Will the Real Conservatives Please Stand Up ......... 56 Purchase College Reykjavik University State University of New York Nicholas Capaldi Alberto Mingardi Chor-Yung Cheung Istituto Bruno Leoni Anglo-Canadian Toryism and Anglo-American City University of Hong Kong Stefano Moroni Conservatism: A Dialogue with Roger Scruton ........ 59 Francesco Di Iorio Milan Polytechnic Ron Dart Nankai University, China Edmund Neill Gus diZerega* New College of the Humanities The Forked Road: Scruton, Grant and the Taos, NM Mikayla Novak Conservative Critique of Liberalism ................. 66 Péter Érdi RMIT University, Australia Nathan Robert Cockram Kalamazoo College Christian Onof Evelyn Lechner Gick Imperial College London Diachronic Identity: Intimations, Perturbations, Dartmouth College Mark Pennington Antifragility and Toleration ......................... 78 Peter Gordon King’s College London Leslie Marsh University of Southern California Jason Potts Lauren K. Hall* Royal Melbourne Institute Response to Symposium ........................... 84 Rochester Institute of Technology of Technology Sir Roger Scruton Sanford Ikeda Don Ross Purchase College University of Cape Town and Editorial Information ............................... 87 State University of New York Georgia State University Andrew Irvine Virgil Storr The University of British Columbia George Mason University Byron Kaldis Stephen Turner The Hellenic Open University University of South Florida Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo Ashford University *Executive committee http://cosmosandtaxis.org COSMOS + TAXIS Editorial Introduction to a Symposium on Roger Scruton’s Conservatism—An Invitation to the Great Tradition MARTIN BECKSTEIN Universität Zürich Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.philosophie.uzh.ch/de/seminar/professuren/politische/ma/beckstein.html Sir Roger Scruton, doubtlessly one of the most accom- change in politics, or the maxim Hume considered false in plished and productive thinkers of conservatism in the fact but true in politics, namely, ‘that every man must be present age, has published a new book: Conservatism—An supposed a knave.’ Invitation to the Great Tradition. What’s special about this Probably no existing thinker knows better than Scruton book? Why bother to read it, given that it isn’t his first book about the unfavorable first impression conservatism may on the subject? Well, first because all of his books he has make even on curious natures, and that adherents to other written in previous years were highly instructive and plea- intellectual traditions are likely to turn away brusquely al- surable reads—why should it be different this time? Second, ready when hearing the term ‘conservatism’ unless fol- An Invitation is not only Scruton’s most recent, but prob- lowed by an immediate revoco. That’s why Scruton, in this ably ripest and most impressive, articulation of his conser- new book, narrates the (hi)story of conservatism as a con- 1 vative creed. Third, and perhaps most importantly, Scru- comitant feature of a much more popular creed, as a ‘qual- ton’s new book differs from his previous ones in terms of ification of’ or ‘hesitation within’ liberalism, as he puts it genre. Unlike The Meaning of Conservatism (1980) or How (pp. 23, 33). He points to conservative considerations in the to be a Conservative (2014), it isn’t primarily a direct schol- work of thinkers typically considered liberal, such as Har- arly exposition of conservatism. Unlike Fools, Frauds and rington, Locke, Montesquieu and Smith, in order to en- COSMOS + TAXIS + TAXIS COSMOS Firebrands (2016), it isn’t an indirect one either. Unlike On courage ‘well-meaning liberals to take a look at what those Hunting (1999) or the chapter ‘Eating Your Friends’ in Ar- [the conservative] arguments really are’ (p. 6). guments for Conservatism (2006) the new book is not pri- This symposium assesses Scruton’s literary technique and marily a political intervention or a vindication of some rhetorical strategy, but it also discusses the narrative of the morally disputed activity. Instead, with An Invitation, as conservative tradition on offer. For even though it is nomi- the title suggests, Scruton takes up the challenge of handing nally addressed to liberals, An Invitation is bound to inter- down an intellectual tradition to infidels. cede in the dispute over authenticity among self-identified Handing down an intellectual tradition is a demanding conservatives and scholars of conservatism. It provides an task. It cannot be achieved by constructing a powerful ar- account of conservatism after all, and it does so by selecting gument or by means of persuasion alone. Ultimately, the and harmonizing certain thinkers and themes while mar- success of the endeavor depends upon one’s ability to fa- ginalizing others. One shouldn’t be surprised, accordingly, miliarize readers with a comprehensive way of thinking, to that praise goes hand in hand with friendly suggestions for equip them with the means to internalize it, and to moti- modifications, skeptical questions and critical consider- vate them to pass that way of thinking on to the next gen- ations. eration in turn. Thus, the lead essay, by EnoTrimçev , reads An Invita- To hand down the intellectual tradition of conservatism tion as Scruton’s ‘definite statement on the politics of our is a particularly demanding task because conservatism is a time.’ Commending it for its willingness to proceed from bittersweet sort of nectar. Whereas liberalism or socialism what is already given in the here and now, Trimçev argues accept a sobering aftertaste to court their consumers upon that the horizon of empirical conservatism should be en- the first sip, conservatism has a reconciling finish but starts larged by turning to its metaphysical roots—for this might off with an astringent sensation—just think of Burke’s puz- be necessary to illume the conservative core experience of zling dictum that change is a necessary means to prevent order, the experience of what Scruton calls ‘sacrality.’ In a Editorial Introduction to A Symposium ON ROGER Scruton’S Conservatism—AN Invitation to THE Great Tradition similarly constructive vein, Kevin Mulligan proceeds from vance of more orthodox varieties of Toryism. Finally, Leslie the assumption that political philosophies must be based Marsh, the managing editor of Cosmos + Taxis, raises some on social philosophies, and—wondering whether Scruton’s important questions about the pressing issue of toleration. thought since recently has taken an ‘axiological’ turn—ex- While tolerating the intolerant cannot be an option for any plores Max Scheler’s philosophy as a promising source of political regime aiming at stability, it is controversial that inspiration for such a task. rediscovering and defending our political and religious in- David Corey recommends pushing the point of conser- heritance, as Scruton claims in his last chapter ‘Conserva- vatism’s qualifying nature a little bit further to include also tism Now,’ could be a viable alternative. the Marxist and transhumanist calls for liberation from The issue concludes with a reply by Sir Roger Scruton. economic exploitation and biological necessity. Conserva- Whether and to what extent An Invitation will succeed in tism, Corey suggests, is most adequately grasped as a family transmitting the conservative tradition favored by Scru- of reactionary movements to political forces trying to pull ton to the present and following generations remains to be entirely down some barrier to freedom. The