And it is precisely this that engenders our unscrupulous favouritism – the favouritism that has made it a crime in my country to shoot a cat, however destructive its behaviour, but a praiseworthy action to poison a mouse, and thereby to infect the food-chain on which so many animals depend. And because of this we judge them purely in terms of their ability to share our domestic ambience, to profit from our affection, and from time to time to reciprocate it in their own mute and dependent way. Confessions of a Heretic: Selected Essays Scruton, Roger 4. They do not distinguish right from wrong they cannot recognise the call of duty or the binding obligations of the moral law. Elevated in this way to the plane of moral consciousness, they find themselves unable to respond to the distinctions that morality requires. But perhaps the greatest damage done by the idea of animal rights is the damage to animals themselves. “I have argued against the idea of animal rights elsewhere.5 My argument stems, not from a disrespect for animals, but from a respect for moral reasoning, and for the concepts – right, duty, obligation, virtue – which it employs and which depend at every point on the distinctive features of self-consciousness. Hard-hitting essays by acclaimed social commentator and philosopher Roger Scruton, guaranteed to provoke lively debate A wide-ranging selection that includes essays on architecture and modern art, the environment, politics, and culture. And”Ĭonfessions of a Heretic: Selected Essays Confessions of a Heretic Selected Essays. Horses treated in this way are frequently discarded, like the dolls of children. Such a love takes no true note of the horse, and is quite compatible with a ruthless neglect of the animal, when it loses (as it will) its superficial attractions. The horse has become the object of a self-regarding love, a love without true care for the thing that occasions it. A person who lavishes this kind of affection on a horse is either deceiving himself or else taking pleasure in a fantasy affection, treating the horse as a means to his own emotion, which has become the real focus of his concern. A love that regards the horse as a play-thing, whose purpose is to satisfy the whims of a rider, to be an object of cuddling and caressing of a kind that the horse himself can neither reciprocate nor understand – such a love is a way of disregarding the horse. Scrutopia, Christmas 2015 42.“Now it seems to me that there are bad ways of loving a horse: ways that are bad for the horse, and also bad for the one who loves him. I have weeded out material of an academic kind, and have tried to include only those essays that touch on matters of concern to all intelligent people, in the volatile times in which we live. I describe them as confessions, since they reveal aspects of my thinking which, if I am to believe the critics, ought to have been kept to myself. Some have been published in print or on-line some are appearing here for the first time. 9781912559343 Confessions of a Heretic, Revised Edition 42.3000 NZD InStock /shop/books /shop/books/non-fiction /shop/books/non-fiction/education-reference /shop/books/non-fiction/education-reference/politics This collection of essays arises from a decade of engagement with the public culture of Britain and America. This collection of essays arises from a decade of engagement with the public culture of Britain and America. A collection of provocative essays by the influential social commentator, Roger Scruton. I have weeded out material of an academic kind, and have tried to include only those essays that touch on matters of concern to all i. I describe them as confessions, since they reveal aspects of my thinking which, if I am to believe the critics, ought to have been kept to myself. Confessions of a Heretic, Revised Edition by Roger Scruton (Hardcover, 2021) Get it by Wed, 7 Jun - Thu, 8 Jun Product Information. This collection of essays arises from a decade of engagement with the public culture of Britain and America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |