Roger Scruton, who has died of lung cancer aged 75, was a philosopher and a controversial public intellectual. Roger Scruton: a brilliant philosopher and self-conscious controversialist | Seamus Perry Read moreIn 1978, Scruton co-founded the Jan Hus Educational Foundation in Prague. It may sound odd for a serious philosopher and intensely sincere person to exalt illusion, but, quoting Oscar Wilde, Scruton insisted that only someone very shallow does not judge by appearances. A smile is “really” only the movement of facial muscles – except that it is not, any more (as Scruton insisted in Sexual Desire, 1986) than erotic sex is just the mutual manipulation of body parts. • Roger Vernon Scruton, philosopher, writer and activist, born 27 February 1944; died 12 January 2020

Source: The Guardian January 14, 2020 13:52 UTC