Johan Wenstromm in his piece ‘The Philosopher of the Small World’ suggests that there is much in Roger’s philosophy that will bring us happiness and encouragement even in the quieter times forced on us by the pandemic.
John O'Sullivan writes for the National Review. Click HERE to read the full article.
Last week a unique but apposite tribute was paid in Budapest to the late Sir Roger Scruton, the distinguished Tory philosopher who died earlier this year: A café was opened in his name. It goes under the designer label “Scruton—The Place to be” and is situated three blocks from the Hungarian Parliament at 10 Zoltan Street. It’s the first of several such cafes. A second has already opened in the city center, at least technically, and will open its doors in reality when the COVID restrictions are lifted. Several more are planned for Hungarian university towns where their natural clientele is likely to be found (until about three every morning if my own university life is any precedent).
On Monday 16th, the Scruton Cafe in Budapest was opened. A panel discussion about the work and legacy of Sir Roger Scruton was recorded and can be viewed online here. The participants in the conversation are British conservative author and journalist, Douglas Murray, Visiting fellow at the Danube Institute, Ferenc Hörcher, Director of the Research Institute for Politics and Government, and John O’Sullivan, president of the Danube Institute. The discussion was moderated by journalist Boris Kalnoky, head of the Media School of Mathias Corvinus Collegium. The event was co-organized by Mathias Corvinus Collegium and Scruton Community Space.
This highly recommended interview from Alicja Gescinska was recorded in 2016 and is now available again online. You will have to register, but it is free. The Wanderlust episode was filmed at home, at Scrutopia.
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/wanderlust/1/wanderlust-s1a1/
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On November 10, 2020, the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation hosted the third interview of its online event series Building Beautiful. The event featured Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk—Founding Principal of DPZ CoDesign, cofounder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and past Driehaus Prize Laureate—in conversation with the Foundation's Senior Fellow in the Built Environment Samuel Hughes.
The interview can be viewed HERE.
Following the online conference on 1 Octobers, Roger's Lorca songs were performed by Kristi Bryson and Katalin Csillagh.
These can be viewed on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation YouTube page or clicking the links below
Recordings of the two lectures and a discussion are now available from the online conference, Educating the Soul through Art, On the Political and Aesthetical Legacy of Sir Roger Scruton’s Work. This event was co-organised by the University of Public Service, Budapest and Buckingham University, London on 1 October 2020. Links to the lectures can be found HERE.
A short memorial piece by Barry Smith, published in The World of Fine Wine
While I was teaching at Birkbeck College in the early nineteen nighties, and a colleague of Roger Scruton, we would meet in passing to exchange a few words en route to give our lectures. One time I happened to have seen an exhibition with the striking title: Between discipline and desire. I mentioned it to him saying that the title seemed to encapsulate the whole of life. He looked at me puzzled and said, “But for me discipline is desire.” Roger was nothing if not interesting. I smiled and headed off to give my class wondering what on earth he meant. It was years later when reading his essay, The Golden Mean, in this magazine, that I finally understood his remark.
In that essay, he charts moderation as a way to live and be on good terms with one’s species. It avoids the excess of binging, and as he saw it the equal extreme of abstinence. It requires equilibrium, not taking the easy way, not being swept along. But that is hard won:
...if there were an easy way back to the world of moderation, we would take it. But there’s the rub: balance needs discipline, be it the discipline of the tightrope walker or that of the impartial judge. (WFW Issue 1)
One of the most powerful words in modern architectural criticism is that of ‘pastiche’. In one of its senses, a building is a pastiche if it exhibits one or more established styles in a jumbled way, either due to incompetence or to some kind of playfulness. This is a useful concept, which picks out an important feature of many buildings.
The full article by Samuel Hughes can be read online HERE.
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