Wildstein recalls Roger Scruton: He played a remarkable role. He understood philosophy, as it should be understood

He understood philosophy as it should be understood, namely as the love for wisdom - beyond fashions, beyond ideological pressures, beyond short-term benefits. He was an extremely deep-minded man who was not influenced by the tyranny of opinions, the believes that impose certain views that had little to do with deep thinking. Roger Scruton paid the price for this

— said on Radio Wnet Bronisław Wildstein, recalling the late Roger Scroton.

Wildstein pointed out that Scruton had posed the question: „What is fundamental for a human being?” explaining that human nature is the same as it was thousands of years ago.

And that is challenging certain dogmas of modern thought, ideologies that assume that there is no such thing as human nature. This is paradoxical, because nature helps us to define things, so that we can actually get to know them. But today, the answer is that man’s nature is a lack of nature and self-realization, which sounds enigmatic and terribly pathetic and places man in the place of God

— said Wildstein, adding that Scruton showed these usurpations and everything that is necessary for man to be able to function.

The author of „The Face of God” was an aesthete and expert on architecture, to which he dedicated many of his texts. The leaders of the Architects’ Union had fundamentally different views on the role of beauty in architecture. When he was removed from the government institution at their insistence, one of the trade union leaders said: „It’s so good that a man talking about nonsense like beauty has finally been removed from office.”

Because of his conservative views, incompatible with contemporary university righteousness, he became the object of many attacks. His books were banned from university libraries and he was called a „fascist”.

In the context of the fight against Scruton Wildstein drew attention to the tendency to introduce censorship at universities in Western European countries.

The paradox is that at the moment we live in the world where the institutions that should be the centres of freedom are the ones most enslaved. This is a manifestation of the fundamental crisis of Western culture

— emphasised Wildstein.

People with politically incorrect views on e.g. human sexuality are fought against. The deceased also dealt with this problem, devoting his book „Desire” to the latter, in which he noted that homosexuality cannot be equated with heterosexualism, because the heterosexual aspect embeds desire in cultural and social conditions, leads to procreation, responsibility; in the case of homosexuality it is detached from that

— said Wildstein.

When asked if Scruton managed to add something to the treasure trove of philosophical thinking, Wildstein concluded that Scruton played an extraordinary role.

I think he’s the most significant philosopher in the Anglo-Saxon countries. It’s not just about his conservatism or that he believed that what needs to be protected should be protected. When we read his main works, we are struck by his open-mindedness

— said Bronisław Wildstein.

Tłum. K.J.