Sacrifice as a Way of Protecting Culture and Nature in the Thought of Roger Scruton

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present and analyze the main ideas of Roger Scruton regarding the role of sacrifice in the process of building a healthy culture, whose proper development is also connected with the ability to care for the natural human environment. The British philosopher assumes that the multi-aspect crisis observed today has its origins in the inability to serve higher values – such as the sacred and beauty – which have always been the protection of the human home. The implementation of high values ​​is a path that requires sacrifice, but also the only one that can defend our civilization from destruction. This way involves making an effort for aesthetic and spiritual education. It requires the ability to reject strong desires of self-presentation, a consumerism mindset, the profanation of values ​​that seem to pose too high demands. Sacrifice in Scruton's understanding is simultaneously the basic category of high art and one of the key pillars of ojkophilia.