The Meaning of Conservatism: A Symposium on the Thought of Roger Scruton
Friday October 9, 2015 2:00-6:30 PM
Keynote 5:30 PM
Roger Scruton, “What It Means To Be A Conservative: An Explanation and a Defense”
Rhodes College
Blount Auditorium, Buckman Hall (Free and Open to the Public)
For information contact: cullen@rhodes.edu
Session I: What Do Conservatives Want to Conserve?
2:00-3:15 pm
David Corey, “Music and our Cultural Decline”
David Corey teaches political philosophy at Baylor University. His books include The Just War Tradition; The Sophists in Plato’s Dialogues and a forthcoming work on Political Philosophy against Ideology. He was educated at Oberlin College, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees: one in Music from the Conservatory, and one in Classical Languages & Literature from the College. He received his MA and PhD in political science from Louisiana State University. He is a Faculty Associate at the John Jay Institute, a consultant for the Kern Family Foundation, and a Research Fellow for the Institute for the Study of American Civic Literacy.
Daniel Mahoney, “Love of Truth in a Land of Lies: Reflections on Roger Scruton’s Notes From Underground”
Daniel Mahoney is Professor of Politics at Assumption College. An authority on the writings of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Mahoney is the editor of The Solzhenitsyn Reader and the author of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent From Ideology and, more recently, The Other Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth about a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker. Other recent books include The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order: Defending Democracy against Its Modern Enemies and Immoderate Friends. He is a renowned interpreter of French political thought and has published important studies of Raymond Aron, Bertrand de Jouvenel and Pierre Manent.
Wilfred McClay, “On Settling Somewhere: Roger Scruton on the Significance of Place”
Wilfred McClay is the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History Liberty at University of Oklahoma, where he is also Professor of History. He is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. His books include The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America, The Student’s Guide to U.S. History, and Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America and Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in the American Past. He recently co-edited Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America.
Session II Conservatism in America
3:30-4:45 PM
Stephen F. Hayward, “What American Conservatives Should Learn from Roger Scruton”
Steven F. Hayward is the Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. He writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and National Review. He is the author of Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, published in 14 editions, and its successor, the Almanac of Environmental Trends. Hayward is the author of a two-volume narrative history of Ronald Reagan and his effect on American political life, The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980, and The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989. His other books include Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World; Churchill on Leadership, and Greatness: Reagan Churchill, and the Making of Modern Statesmen.
Peter Lawler, “Roger Scruton on the True Difference between Liberalism and Conservatism”
Peter A. Lawler is Dana Professor of Government at Berry College. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Allergic to Crazy: Quick Thoughts on Politics, Education, and Culture, Rightly Understood; Modern and American Dignity: Who We Are as Persons, and What That Means for Our Future. He served on the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2004 to 2009 and has written numerous essays on bioethical issues. He is also a contributing editor of The New Atlantis magazine.
James W. Ceaser, “Situational Conservatism”
James W. Ceaser is the Harry Bird Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He has written numerous books on American politics and political thought, including Presidential Selection, Liberal Democracy and Political Science, Reconstructing America, Nature and History in American Political Development, and Designing a Polity: America’s Constitution in Theory and Practice; and he has coauthored several books on recent presidential elections. Professor Ceaser is a regular contributor to the popular press, including the Weekly Standard.
Reception and Book Signing 5:00-5:30 pm
Keynote Lecture 5:30 PM
Roger Scruton, “What it Means to Be A Conservative: An Explanation and a Defense”
Roger Scruton is the leading conservative philosopher in the world. The author of more than 50 books, including novels, poetry, autobiography, and books on philosophy, aesthetics, architecture, music, the environment, hunting, culture, beauty, morality, religion, the church and political philosophy. His most recent books include How to be a Conservative and his fourth novel, The Disappeared.