A review by mblewis
Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton

4.0

All the faults of Scruton's book can be explained by its title. In condensing his introduction to the history of aesthetics to a "very short" volume, he necessarily must leave a lot of questions unanswered about his premises. This leads to poetic but sweeping generalities about human sanctity and particularity, the pursuit of "a higher realm," and the rational foundations of aesthetic experience (to name a few) that beg for more detailed clarification. Of course, that clarification can only come at the cost of brevity. Which is probably frustrating to anyone who finds his arguments overly traditional. (Haven't we moved past being able speak about beauty's fundamental rationality? Aren't his strictures against pornography embarrassingly old fashioned?) Thankfully, I happen to share a lot of Scruton's theological premises (if not necessarily his Kantian ones), so reading this was a welcome relief from so many of the more thorough texts on aesthetics and ethics that I've been steeped in for the past few months. It is precisely what its title claims: a (very good) very short introduction to the idea of beauty.