Customer Reviews

On Hunting

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very quick and enjoyable read ... a weekend delight about weekend delights gone by.
I both hunt and read philosophy, so I'm biased to like this book on two counts.
Nonetheless, I'd highly recommend this work to anyone with an interest in philosophy who is curious about hunting, or to a hunter who likes to think. I guess one third character need apply: the post-modern untermensch with an aching sense that something is wrong with his heart and his world, and a desire to learn what that might be. Some insightful hints are found between these covers.

This a short but important work by Roger Scuton. Its importance consists in witnessing how an active and insightful mind, such as his, can see nature and beauty in the world around him. His concise and wonderful prose is a lesson to those who wish to learn what makes life worth living. In a way, it is journal of how Scruton came to self-knowledge, not through abstractions and academic jargon, but through sensitivity to what life offers. He begins with hunting but he ends with a moving romance with nature itself. In this regard, hunting is but a window into his soul and the limits of human nature. I have read all of his books and this one ranks among the best. A must read.

This is Scruton at his best in non academic writing. If you ever wondered what fox hunting had to do with Aristotle, Plato, Kant (and possibly even Heiddiger, the man not the tunelling boring machine) this is the place to look. It is also a good present for parents of philosophy students who wonder if their offspring are doing a safe or sensible subject. They'll have no worries after reading this. I recommend it very highly, except for sad socialists.