Conversations with Roger Scruton

Professor Roger Scruton is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge. He has been Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and University Professor at Boston University. He is currently Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington DC. He has published a large number of books, including some works of fiction, and has written and composed two operas. He writes regularly for The Times, The Telegraph, The Spectator and was for many years wine critic of The New Statesman.Mark Dooley has held lectureships at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and at University College Dublin where he was John Henry Newman Scholar of Theology. From 2003-2006, he wrote a controversial column on foreign affairs for the Sunday Independent. Since 2006, he has written for the Irish Daily Mail. Dooley is also a regular broadcaster on Irish radio and television, and has served as a political speech writer. He is author of The Politics of Exodus: Kierkegaard's Ethics of Responsibility (2001), The Philosophy of Derrida (2007), and Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach (2009). He is editor of Questioning Ethics (1999), Questioning God (2001), A Passion for the Impossible (2003), and The Roger Scruton Reader (2009).

• Preface1 Childhood and Cambridge2 Becoming a Philosopher3 Becoming a Conservative at Birkbeck4 Some Thoughts on British Philosophy5 Eastern Europe6 Why Architecture?7 Why Sex?8 Leaving Birkbeck for Boston9 Farming and Family10 Sinful Pleasures11 Rediscovering Religion12 Living as a Writer13 Making Music14 AcceptanceAfterwordNotesIndex