The Soul of the World

The Soul of the World
	Cover of the first edition
Author	Roger Scruton
Language	English
Subject	The sacred
Publisher	Princeton University Press
Publication date	2014
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	216
ISBN	9780691161570

The Soul of the World is a 2014 book by the English philosopher Roger Scruton.

Summary

The author argues for the reality of a transcendent dimension, and maintains that the experience of the sacred plays a decisive role even in a secular society. Scruton supports the concept of "cognitive dualism", which means that a human can be explained both as a physical organism, and as a subjective person who relates to the world through concepts which do not belong in physical sciences, and without which it would not be possible to understand human life. Scruton discusses the meaning of the sacred, evaluating and criticizing theories such as those of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, as put forward in works such as Totem and Taboo (1913), and the anthropologist René Girard, as put forward in works such as Violence and the Sacred (1972).^[1]

Publication history

The Soul of the World was first published by Princeton University Press in 2014.^[2]

Reception

Marcus Tanner reviewed the book in The Independent:

Lest any vicar feel tempted to pick up this book in search of inspiration for Sunday sermons, it should be pointed out that Scruton doesn't have much to say specifically about God or Christianity, except at the end. What he mostly defends in these essays is a thinking person's right to say no to a boiled-down Darwinism that reduces all relationships to contracts and all human behaviour and emotions to biological selection and adaptation. ... Scruton argues persuasively that much of what passes for scientific fact today is just the latest fashion in physics. But one wonders who would find this eloquent plea on behalf of the right to interpret things in various ways objectionable.^[3]

The book was also reviewed in The New Criterion,^[4] The Oxonian Review^[5] Prospect,^[6] The Financial Times,^[7] The Times Literary Supplement^[8]

References

^ Scruton, Roger (2014). The Soul of the World. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. pp. 1–198. ISBN 0-19-507613-3.
^ Scruton, Roger (2014). The Soul of the World. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. iv. ISBN 0-19-507613-3.
^ Tanner, Marcus (22 March 2014). "The Soul of the World by Roger Scruton, book review: Preaching to the converted". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
^ Daniel J. Mahoney (May 2019). "Scruton's Souls". The New Criterion.
^ Gabriel Roberts (2 February 2015). "Is Nothing Sacred?". The Oxonian Review. Archived from the original on 12 February 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ Jonathan Derbyshire (22 May 2014). "Book review: The Soul of the World by Roger Scruton". Prospect.
^ Sarah Bakewell (11 April 2014). "'Culture and the Death of God'; 'The Soul of the World'". The Financial Times.
^ David Owens (12 September 2014). "Roger Scruton – The Soul of the World" (PDF). The Times Literary Supplement. p. 22.