<p>Roger Scruton is a philosopher, writer, political activist and businessman. He is a professor in the department of philosophy at St Andrews University and a scholar at the American Entreprise Inst
Graeme Mitchison wrote parts of one of Ian McEwan's novels, contributed a key quote to one of Philippe Sands' International Court of Justice victories, and invented openDemocracy's rotating front-page editorship.
Part 2 of an interview around Roger Scruton's new novel, Underground Notes. The contrast between Prague in the early 1980s and Washington in the late 2000s is the backdrop for a reflection on the nature of love, freedom and necessity
Part 1 of an interview around Roger Scruton's new novel, Underground Notes. Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s is the backdrop for an exploration of a conservative existentialism.
The Prime Minister has conceded that there will be a Scottish independence referendum and argued the case for the Union on these terms. This is a historic moment for Britain. openDemocracy asks its readers for their response in an open forum on the future of the Union.
The legal fiction of the "corporate person" has helped economic growth through making possible limited liability, fractional reserve banking, insurance and many other fictions. But it has also made it easier to divorce the moral realities of debt and obligation from economic fictions. The endless
A few weeks ago I was at a dinner in Bucharest, hosted by a small centre-right think-tank, at which the discussion focused on the continuing dominance in western universities of
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, like Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy, combined the gifts of a novelist with the stature and ambitions of a prophet. He may not have matched their achievements as
The response to the Archbishop of Canterbury's lecture on 7 February 2008, " Civil and Religious Law in England: a Religious Perspective", has included discussion of the
You can read a great novel - Nostromo, for example - and immediately, on finishing, want to read it again. You can listen to a great symphony - Bruckner'
Richard Rorty, who died on 8 June 2007, was a philosopher whose high reputation was bestowed on him, not by fellow philosophers, but by the many literary scholars who took
The 300th anniversary of the Act of Union on 1 May 1707, which completed the merger of the English and Scottish crowns, provides an occasion to reflect on the future
Nobody can doubt that Tony Blair has exhibited extraordinary skill during his time in office since 1 May 1997 - maintaining a strong parliamentary majority even after re-election in 2001