An interview by Bernard Chapin, The Contemplations of Roger Scruton on the occasion of Scruton's new book "Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged"
BC: What does it mean to embrace the contemplative life? What does one’s doing so amount to in practice?
RS: It means allowing one's opinions to be shaped by truth, rather than the wish to believe. It means allowing one's actions to be shaped by virtue, rather self-interest; it means allowing one's emotions to be founded in acceptance of the world and the willing affirmation of the right of others to be.
BC: Is knowledge, no matter what kind of knowledge it is, an end in itself? How have we failed in the present age to pass knowledge on to the young?
RS: Yes, knowledge is an end in itself, which is why people are afraid of it - they have no formula with which to understand and confine its power. We have failed to pass on knowledge to the young because we have been more interested in the young than in knowledge. Teachers are taught to follow the sentimentalities of Rousseau and Dewey, regarding knowledge as a benefit to the child. The real educator regards the child as a benefit to knowledge - the brain which, properly modified, will carry the burden of knowledge into the future and one day pass it on.
Posted by Jill Fallon at August 9, 2007 9:15 PM | Permalink