Ferenc Hörcher
@HorcherF
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History of ideas & poetry @UpsPolitics , "A Political Philosophy of Conservatism" (2020), "Art and Politics in Roger Scruton's Conservative Philosophy" (2023).
Budapest
Joined October 2019
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The book-length output of my last four years:
- A Political Philosophy of Conservatism (2020)
- The Political Philosophy of the European City (2021)
- Art and Politics in Roger Scruton's Conservative Philosophy (2023)
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If you are interested in one of these, you might want to read the other one, as well.
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Scruton on Weil: "She identified the chief evil of modern civilisation as déracinement, and attempted to analyse the enracinement (putting down of roots) that had protected humanity in the past, and might again protect it in the future, from social corrosion."
“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”
Simone Weil
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Scruton on mourning: "In our civilization, therefore, religion is the force that has enabled us to bear our losses and so to face them as truly ours. The loss of religion makes real loss difficult to bear; hence people begin to flee from loss..."
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Why do you think has the late Sir Roger Scruton become a popular icon of conservatism, while Michael Oakeshott remained the the favourite of the select few, of the gourmands of conservatism?
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" It is hard not to feel that with his death, Europe has lost one of the last minds that truly understood her.."
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A good description of a major difference between conservatism and liberalism.
“Conservative prejudices are rooted in a great past and Liberal ones in an imaginary future.”
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour
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This is Budapest, my hometown.
No matter how many thousand times I walk these beautiful streets of a bustling city in a sane country, I never stop feeling blessed.
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"I was taking a step back from the modern world into a realm of ancestral freedoms. I was also discovering England." (Roger Scruton: On Hunting)
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I got the final proofs for this book, to be resent by 21th October. This project seems to be in its final stage. Now again, it depends on me if I can do it on time.
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One of the soundest minds of our world and a staunch defender of fundamental Christian values is going to depart us soon. Let us pray for Pope Benedict XVI.
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This one has arrived today. What a nice Christmas present.
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Just arrived to Glasgow. Back to Scotland. Straight to Waterstone's. This is what I bought immediately, before my soup and sandwiches.
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Scruton on art and religion:
"Yet art, properly understood, is a kind of prayer: it is an attempt to call the timeless and the transcendental to the scene of some human incident."
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We had a great session this morning in our research seminar series at
@UpsPolitics
with
@LokMatthijs
about his book on Europe against Revolution (2023).
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These are the books I received right now for my book project on Sir Roger. I am so happy and grateful for them!
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Make a note in your calendar, if you are interested in the work of Roger Scruton!
A Conference on Roger Scruton and Religion is going to take place on 13-14. June, in Budapest, organised by
@KarlGustel
and myself. We will keep you informed about it.
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An explication of the single most important concept of Scruton's late philosophy.
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Scruton on the connection of his aesthetics and theology:
"I have come to see more clearly that the position that naturally appeal to me in aesthetics also suggest a theological elaboration."
Preface, The Soul of the World
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A report (in Hungarian) of the roundtable about Scruton in Budapest with
@HorcherF
,
@DouglasKMurray
, and
@JohnOSullivanNR
moderated by
@bkalnoky
the roundtable is available at:
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"Finding balanced humility is the result of habit. Aristotle indicated that practice is how character is cultivated... we can cultivate proper pride, moderation, and humility as excellences or virtues." (Bellitto: Humility)
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Do you happen to know of this book? How do you see the impact of this dialogue, if there was something like that?
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Problem of Machiavelli scholarship:
how to make claims about a writer who states: “For some time now I have never said what I believe or never believed what I said, and if..I sometimes tell the truth, I hide it behind so many lies that it is hard to find.”
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Is Hans-Georg Gadamer returning?
I wish he was....
I am ready to defend his conservative credentials.
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Scruton: "I’m not a populist. I’m a believer in institutions. ...institutions are the only guarantee we have of continuity and freedom. If you make direct appeals to the people all the time, the result is totally unstable, like the French Revolution."
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20th c. work on tradition
•TS Eliot Tradition and the Individual Talent (1917)
•Karl Popper Towards a Rational Theory of Tradition (1948)
•Michael Oakeshott Political Education (1951)
•Hans-Georg Gadamer Wahrheit und Methode (1960)
•Edward Shils Tradition (1981)
Continue!
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"The over-emphasis on the economic status of individuals and the lack of social conservatism in parliament has led to an overly restricted concept of wellbeing... A successful economy needs tradition and a striving culture." Dan Pitt on Scruton's Triptych.
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Two books, approaching the conservative agenda from the perspective of the virtue of prudence.
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German towns represent a medieval tradition, which is still admireable, mainly because of the human proportions of their spaces. Historic preservation can help to sustain a humane life.
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Scruton on the architect's responsibility.
This is where the education of architects should start.
"Architecture is a public art: whether we like it or not, we are forced to witness it. Until architects recognize that they are altering the dwelling-place of everyone, they will be unaware of the nature of their task" David Watkin and the Classical Idea
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The traditional idea, also cherished by Scruton that buildings have to fit in, to find their proper place among the other buildings of the street or the square.
A beautiful old shop in Saint Remy de Provence. What a dream it is to own a shop like this and sell dusty books…
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Wittgenstein's childhood home and the house he himself built for his sister, both in Vienna.
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"Tradition is not the dead hand of the past but rather the hand of the gardener, which nourishes & elicits tendencies of judgment which would otherwise not be strong enough to emerge on their own. It is a stimulant to moral judgment & self-discipline rather than an opiate." Shils
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This is a crucial book for me, too.
This little book has joined a small number of pillar texts supporting my thinking about faith and culture. Highly recommend.
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Palgrave already advertises my book on the late Sir Roger Scruton, to be published in October.
"Art and Politics in Roger Scruton's Conservative Philosophy
Authors: Ferenc Hörcher
Copyright: 2023
Published: 14 October 2022
Hard cover eBook"
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Our conference in Cambridge, entitled British Intellectual Conservatisn: Past and Present, seems to have found a niche in the market of academic conferences. Participants and speakers seem to have liked it. Next step: prepare the ground for a collected volume.
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"Scruton came out with The Meaning of Conservatism in 1980. This was simultaneous with the breakthrough of Thatcher’s premiership. His book was, in fact, a not so covered criticism of the sort of economic liberalism, the centre of Thatcher’s regime."
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In memoriam Sir Roger Scruton.
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Working on a paper on Anglophilia.
How do you explain the phenomenon?
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One of the greatest inspirations of my academic work, a leading figure of the Cambridge historians of political thought, J. G. A. Pocock died.
I translated a number of his essays into Hungarian, in 1996.
R.I.P.
Deeply sad to learn that John Pocock passed away yesterday at the extraordinary age of 99. The greatest historian of political thought of his generation, he was perhaps the greatest historian of historiography we'll ever see. Il miglior fabbro.
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... And it was worth it."
“It cost me many thousand hours of unpaid labour, a hideous character assassination in Private Eye, 3 lawsuits, 2 interrogations, 1 expulsion, the loss of a university career in Britain, unendingly contemptuous reviews, Tory suspicion & the hatred of decent liberals everywhere…”
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Have a look at the new layout of the online version of the European Conservative.
Once again, it looks great:
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"European interest in Scruton was demonstrated by the philosopher Ferenc Horcher (Art and Politics in Roger Scruton’s Conservative Philosophy) & the C&R group in the EU parliament (Tradition & Change: Scruton’s Philosophy & Its Meaning...)." (H. George)
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Making the first steps towards a conference on John Finnis, analytical Thomism and Natural Law. Would you be interested in something like that?
John Finnis is a criminally underrated legal philosopher.
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Roadside crosses belong to our tradition.
The world would be better if we had more wayside shrines ✝️
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Scruton in his book on Wagner's Parsifal:
"in everything that happens to us, there is a choice between the passive view of ourselves as objects driven by fate, and the active adoption of ourselves as subjects, accountable to others, I to thou."
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Today I received the signed contract from Springer/Palgrave Macmillan for my next book, with the working title:
An Aristotelian Philosophy of Civility - Culture and Politics
I have to submit it by 20. January 2025
What a distance!
I hope God will help me finish it.
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Sir Roger Scruton also received the Commander's Cross with Star of the Hungarian Order of Merit, from the President of Hungary, directly brought and given over to him by Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, in late 2019, in London.
Sir Roger Scruton, a conservative philosopher and friend of Poland, died
#OTD
in 2020, after a 6-month cancer battle.
In 2019, he was awarded the highest Polish honour for foreigners - the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit.
The honour was made in recognition of Sir Roger’s work
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This title is so inspiring: i am tempted to write another one with the title: Conservatism as a way of life. Is this envy? :)
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"Taste, like style, is the man himself." - this fine sentence by Scruton sums up my effort in my work-in-progress project: An Aristotelian Philosophy of Civility. The concept of civility sheds light on the relevance of taste in our ordinary political judgements and deeds.
"Aesthetic interest does not stem from our passing desires: it reveals what we are and what we value. Taste, like style, is the man himself" Modern Culture
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Scruton's insistence on the study of art and culture makes him a key exponent of the idea that conservatism is a political philosophy built on an understanding of culture.
"Philosophy's retreat from the study of art and culture has left a vacuum. In its absence, any kind of nonsense can take root and stifle the natural growth of meaning" Modern philosophy and the neglect of aesthetics
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"For hunting lifts me out of my modernist solitude and throws me down in a pre-modern herd - a composite herd, made up of horse and hound and human, each sharing its gift of excitement and giving its all to the chase." (Roger Scruton)
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If you are interested in the work of the philosopher Roger Scruton, read these two, recently published books on him.
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"Europe has lost a profound thinker and the Catholic Church one of the last great theologians – the Patriarch of Christendom, an unusual Patriarch who was characterized by wisdom and tenderness!"
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Edmund Burke is topical, to remind us that the first precondition of a viable politics is to have correct knowledge of human nature.
"This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature."
Edmund Burke
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"Hörcher noted that his idea of conservatism is that it is based on three pillars: prudence, moderation and tradition."
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Just to make sure what European values are about:
a new book about the anti-revolutionary tradition in European thought:
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"I am a patriot, a believer in local loyalties, and a fierce defender of the territorial and historical rights of my countrymen."
'
#Conservatism
and conservation are two aspects of a single long-term policy, which is that of husbanding resources and ensuring their renewal' Sir
@Roger_Scruton
in Green Philosophy
#EarthDay2024
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Some more work needs to be done to clarify the similarities and differences between Scruton's and Kirk's thought. They seem to be pivotal figures of the intellectual conservatisms of their respective countries.
"Men cannot improve a society by setting fire to it: they must seek out its old virtues, and bring them back into the light."
Russell Kirk, 19th October 1918 – 29th April 1994
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The library is nothing less but the bridge between books and architecture.
Livraria Lello, Porto , Portugal. Worth a visit for the book lovers, or the architecture crowd.
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This is one of the cultural capitals of Europe: Veszprém. Come to Hungary, and see it with your own eyes. Close to Lake Balaton.
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I have my first draft of the book by now.
I head towards submitting the first version of the typescript of "Politics and Art in Roger Scruton's Conservative Philosophy" to the publisher,
@PalgravePhil
by early summer.
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As I promised myself, I finished a first draft of my book on Sir Roger's Scruton's thoughts on arts and politics. I asked some friends to read and comment on the draft, which I have to submit by June 2022. I hope I will have the power and perseverance to do so.
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Why is there no European and global talk about Eastern Europe's succes in the fight against the first wave of the pandemic?
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The tower of the Church and Dome of the Library: the two most significant and therefore highest public buildings of an ideal city?
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"So many of those who contributed to the conservative movement in post-Enlightenment Europe were also shaped by an interest in aesthetics: Burke, for example, Hegel, Chateaubriand, Ruskin, Arnold, and more recently Oakeshott, Maritain, Claudel, Eliot."
R. Scruton
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I had to pick it up from the Post Office, but it was worth it: I received today the author's copies from Rowman and Littlefield of my book
"The Political Philosophy of the European City."
I am now assured it's a real object. Next Q: will it have readers?
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One day before Christmas Eve, as in my childhood dreams, our street in Budapest is covered by snow.
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Freedom and order - as two sides of the coin.
Roger Scruton on government:
“Government is a search for order, and for power only in so far as power is required by order. It is present in the family, in the free associations of neighbours, and in the ‘little platoons’ extolled by Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the
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Working on a paper on Scruton and Hungary, with a special focus on Hungarian Conservatism.
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Robert Grant and Anthony O'Hear about Roger Scruton.
Monday, 5th December, 5 pm Budapest, John Lukacs Café, University of Pulbic Service.
Online as well.
Registration and link here:
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Background:
- Scruton shared most of this view with his father, a Labour.
- what they saw outside, was "the desecrated townscape of High Wycombe", where Roger was brought up (modern planning)
- the enemies are: "capitalists, grandees, the landowners" - with no sense of oikophilia
"The proof that England is in the hands of her enemies, my father told me, can be found by looking out of the window."
Sir Roger Scruton, England: An Elegy
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The architectural dialogue of arch and dome.
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Legutko on Scruton: "His conservatism, which took inspiration from many philosophical sources, sometimes rather unexpected such as Hegel’s philosophy, convinced many of us that the conditions of freedom are more accurately captured in non-liberal rather than liberal philosophy."
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Scruton on the Central European roots of American conservatism:
"Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin and others have grafted the metaphysical conservatism of Central Europe on to American roots, forming effective and durable schools of political thought."
Gentle Regrets, 37.
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The major message of my introductory remarks at the British Intellectual Conservatism conference we organise at Churchill College, Cambridge is going to be: Roger Scruton's life and work is the lingua franca among 21. century conservative thinkers (and politics).
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The ideal cloister.
The way you imagine the ideal building of a university, based on the medieval college system.
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Do you happen to know Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998), one of the best essayists of the last century - and an exceptional poet?
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Conservatism as a way of life.
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The Detailed Table of Contents of my recently published book 'Art and Politics in Roger Scruton's Conservative Philosophy' (2023)
@PalgravePhil
@palmacpolitics
@Scruton_Legacy
@Scruton_Quotes
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Correct.
"Socialism always attacks 3 basic social institutions: religion, the family, & private property. Religion, because it offers a rival authority to the state; the family, because it means a rival loyalty to the state; & property, because it means material independence of the state"
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The Austro-Hungarian monarchy had one currency, two parliaments (in Vienna and Budapest), 11 officially recognized peoples/languages and almost as many religions, including Yiddish-speaking Jews, Bosnian Muslims, Orthodox Christians,Protestants to complement its Catholic majority
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Educating the SOUL through ART:
On the Political and Aesthetical Legacy of
Sir Roger SCRUTON’s Work
organized by The University of Public Service (HU)
and The University of Buckingham (UK)
1st October 2020
Program: (downloadable in PDF format) at:
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"Consider what goes on when you lay the table for guests: you will not simply dump down the plates and cutlery anyhow. You will be motivated by a desire for things to look right - not just to yourself but also to your guest." (Scruton: Beauty)
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Sir Roger Scruton: "Sir Christopher Wren, St Paul's Cathedral: beauty destroyed by an arrogant setting"
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Which philosopher guru do you prefer?
Zizek
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Agamben
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Scruton
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No gurus, please!
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Chris Fear presents the late Oakeshott's view of the basic polarity in modern European politics.
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