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The British Journal of Aesthetics 2009 49(4):389-404; doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayp035
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© British Society of Aesthetics 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society of Aesthetics. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Scruton's Philosophy of Culture: Elitism, Populism, and Classic Art

Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton, Durham University and University of Western Australia

a.j.hamilton{at}dur.ac.uk


  Abstract

Scruton is a self-confessed elitist for whom culture is ‘the creation and creator of elites’, though its meaning ‘lies in emotions and aspirations that are common to all’. This article argues that one can uphold his humane conception of the value of high culture without endorsing elitism. It develops a surprisingly unelitist strand in Scruton's thinking into a meritocratic middle way between elitism and populism, in order to explain why art is in some sense an elite product, but with communal resonance. This aim is furthered by interpreting high culture in terms of the less elitist concept of the classic.


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