Blackwell Reference Online

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Professor of A esthetics and philosopher, associated with the conservative wing of the British N ew right as editor of The Salisbury Review and prolific author of works of “dogmatics,” cultural criticism, and journalism. Scruton's conservatism – arising from a sense of belonging “to some continuing and pre-existing social order” and the realization that this is “all-important” in determining what to do – originally found its “principal enemy” in L iberalism . His H egel ian defense of the authority of the state and the institutions which nourish it was thus fashioned in opposition to doctrines of individual autonomy, natural rights, the “obsession” with freedom, the market, the “rot of pluralism,” and the claims of democracy. Latterly he suggested a reconciliation of social conservatism and economic liberalism in the light of Hayek's social epistemology and the experience of post-Communist Central Europe. 1980 (1984) : The Meaning of Conservatism . 1988 : “The New Right in Central Europe.” . 1991 : “What is conservatism?” . ... log in or subscribe to read full text