John Casey (academic)

Last updated

John Casey (born 1939) is a British academic and a writer for The Daily Telegraph . He has been described as "mentor" to Roger Scruton [1] and is a former lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a former lecturer and a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1975, along with Scruton, he founded the Conservative Philosophy Group. Though not a member of Peterhouse, he has been considered part of the Cambridge Right, which included scholars from Selwyn College, Gonville and Caius College and Christ's College as well. He was editor of The Cambridge Review between 1975 and 1979.

Contents

Cambridge

John Casey was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers at St. Brendan's College, Bristol and subsequently at King's College, Cambridge, where he received a First in both parts of the English Tripos. [2] He later returned as a lecturer in English at Gonville and Caius College. [3] Richard Cockett described Casey as a mentor to a whole generation of young Conservatives at Cambridge.

The Language of Criticism

The Language of Criticism was originally Casey's doctoral thesis. [4] Casey argued that critical judgement is objective because critical arguments are rational. They are rational due to considerations which, though they are not necessarily judgements of value, "criteriologically" imply them. For example, if a poem is sentimental "criteriologically" this implies that it is immature. [5] Christopher Ricks wrote of this book, "provided this gets clearing from the philosophers, we shall at last have a compact, cogent and humane justification of criticism as a rational process." [6]

Pagan Virtue

Casey identified "pagan virtues" as those included in the "assertive, proud ethical tradition" of classical Greece and Rome. Pagan virtues, in contrast to Christian ones, included self-regard, worldly values and success in life. [7] Casey also identified physical courage as a pagan virtue, "the chief motives of which are patriotism and the love of honour". [8] These elaborations of pagan virtue were designed to strengthen the moral tradition and challenge Kantian ideas that idolised Good Will. [9]

Journalism

Casey has been a regular contributor to The Spectator , the Sunday and Daily Telegraph , the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard . His special interest is foreign commentary, writing from Japan, Iraq , Iran , Syria and Burma . His articles have included interviews with liberation theologians in Latin America, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Grand Ayatollahs in Iran. He has often written explanatory articles sympathetic to Islam. A chance meeting with the Taliban in North West Pakistan led to their inviting Casey to be their guest in Afghanistan, with the implication that he might be introduced to Osama Bin Laden; but he did not take up the invitation. [10]

During his editorship of The Cambridge Review Casey expressed his conservative philosophy on politics, religion and culture. [11] In 1976 he protested against social engineering and the egalitarianism of contemporary education policy, claiming that the fulfilment of the ideal of equality of opportunity meant the destruction of the family. [12] In 1977 he defended single-sex colleges and also resisted the government's right to change a university's educational policy on political grounds. [13] Casey also expressed his conservative Catholic views by vigorously criticising the suppression of the Tridentine Mass and condemning the New Rite as liberal and imposed on the conservative faithful from above. [14] Upon the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978, Casey opposed the suggestion that the Church should elect a Third World pope. [15] After Norman St John-Stevas in 1979 claimed that "part" of Christ was embodied in Pope John Paul II, Casey attacked this by claiming that the Pope's power did not depend on human characteristics but upon his office. Casey also claimed that "There is no such thing as "moral authority" independent of a precise system of belief. The Pope can have authority only over those who recognise his authority and share his beliefs". [16]

Writers he published for the first time in The Cambridge Review included Gavin Stamp, Roger Scruton, Charles Moore, Oliver Letwin and Adair Turner.

The Salisbury Review Controversy

In 1977 Casey attacked the Race Relations Act 1976 for removing the requirement of "mischievous intent" in inciting racial hatred. He claimed that the requirement was a safeguard of freedom of speech and that the racial issue was a political issue with the "possibilities and limitations of rational discussion" much like "all other political issues". [17] In 1978 Casey attacked the ideology of anti-racism as a liberal myth that was inspired by the liberal tradition, a tradition that had culminated in Robert Nozick's "minimal state" unconnected to language, community and history. He further claimed that the anti-racialist ideology did not reflect the real world as it ignored the power of nationalism. Casey gave the cases of Ireland, Israel and African decolonisation as contemporary examples of nationalism and argued that the countries of Europe became more nationalist with more democratisation. [18] Above all, Casey attacked liberalism for its inadequate explanation of the citizen's loyalty to the state because it ignored patriotism and the "continuity of institutions, shared experience, language, custom and kinship" in favour of a "rootless individualism". [19] An article by Casey in The Salisbury Review titled 'One Nation: The Politics of Race' discussed the repatriation of Commonwealth immigrants. [20] In 2011 Leo Robson of The Observer noted that "Casey long ago renounced the kind of ideas communicated in his lecture 'One Nation: The Politics of Race'." [21] Writing in The Spectator Casey disavowed the article, describing it as "crazy and inhumane".

The rescue of Pascal Khoo Thwe

In February 1988 Casey met a student in Mandalay, Burma, because he had been told he loved James Joyce. Shortly after the student, Pascal Khoo-Thwe (a member of a remote hill tribe), was forced to flee into the jungle along with thousands of others involved in a failed uprising. He sought help from Casey who travelled to the Thai border with a bodyguard and managed to get Khoo-Thwe to England. Khoo-Thwe went on to gain a place at Cambridge University and later wrote an account of the story in his book From The Land of Green Ghosts. The book won the Kiriyama prize for non-fiction (2002) and the French translation won a prize for the best foreign non-fiction book published in France in 2009.

After Lives: A guide to Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

The book reviewed theories of the after life from the ancient Egyptians, through Mesopotamians, ancient Greeks and Romans, Christians and Muslims to the twentieth century. Literary critic James Wood, described the book in his review as having "relaxed obsessiveness of the magnum opus" and Casey as writing "like a Pagan" presenting "the interesting spectacle of a man who has been getting steadily less conservative with age." [22]

Books

Articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Caius</span> English physician (1510–1573)

John Caius, also known as Johannes Caius and Ioannes Caius, was an English physician, and second founder of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Jeremy Halvard Prynne is a British poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Scruton</span> English philosopher (1944–2020)

Sir Roger Vernon Scruton was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views.

Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and received his doctorate in history from Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Fellow and College Lecturer of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before becoming a political and foreign affairs journalist for The Spectator and the Daily Telegraph.

Maurice John Cowling was a British historian and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge.

<i>The Salisbury Review</i>

The Salisbury Review is a quarterly British magazine of conservative thought. It was founded in 1982 by the Salisbury Group, who sought to articulate and further traditional intellectual conservative ideas.

Pascal Khoo Thwe is a Burmese author from the minority Padaung people, known for his autobiographic writings about growing up in Burma under military rule. His book, From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey, was awarded the Kiriyama Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Scurr</span> British historian and literary critic

Ruth Scurr, Lady Stothard FRSL is a British writer, historian and literary critic. She is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Henry Cobden Haslam was a British medical researcher and Conservative Party politician.

British neoconservatism is an ideology that is a strong proponent of foreign intervention in the Arab world and beyond, supports the role of the private sector in military contracts and is in favour of an alliance with Israel. It shares a world view with its US counterpart in regards to threats and opportunities.

Nicholas Burgess Farrell is an English journalist and the author of Mussolini: A New Life.

Christopher Nugent Lawrence Brooke was a British medieval historian. From 1974 to 1994 he was Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge</span> Constituent college of the University of Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius, is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of the wealthiest. In 1557, it was refounded by alumnus John Caius. The college has been attended by many students who have gone on to significant accomplishment, including fifteen Nobel Prize winners, the second-highest of any Oxbridge college after Trinity College, Cambridge.

Peter Giles was a Scottish philologist and Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Stanley Arthur Cook was Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge from 1932 to 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ellys (Caius)</span>

Sir John Ellys or Ellis (1634?–1716) was an English academic, Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1703.

Richard Thomas Shannon was an historian best known for his two-volume biography of William Ewart Gladstone. He was appointed Professor of Modern History at the University College Swansea, University of Wales in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Stewart Roberts</span>

Ernest Stewart Roberts was born in Swineshead, Lincolnshire; a classicist and academic administrator. He served as Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1906-1908). He was admitted to Caius in 1865, elected Fellow in 1870 then Senior Tutor. He was elected President in 1894 and Master in 1903. He was involved in the foundation of the College magazine, The Caian and the College Mission at Battersea and in the organisation of the College rifle corps and boat club.

John Forbes Cameron was a Scottish mathematician, academic and academic administrator. He was Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1928 to 1948 and was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1933 to 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arif Ahmed (philosopher)</span> Philosopher at Cambridge University

Arif Mohuiddin Ahmed is a philosopher at the University of Cambridge, where he became a fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 2015, university reader in philosophy in 2016, and Nicholas Sallnow-Smith College Lecturer in 2019. His interests in philosophy include decision theory and religion, from an atheist and libertarian point of view.

References

  1. ↑ The Independent. 10 March 1991.
  2. ↑ 'Cambridge University Tripos Results: English', Times, 21 June 1958; 'Cambridge Tripos Results', Times, 23 June 1960.
  3. ↑ Profile at The University of Cambridge website
  4. ↑ Charles Covell, The Redefinition of Conservatism. Politics and Doctrine (London: Macmillan, 1986), p. 16.
  5. ↑ F. Cioffi, ‘Review: The Language of Criticism by John Casey’, The Philosophical Quarterly (1950–), Vol. 17, No. 68 (Jul. 1967), pp. 282–283.
  6. ↑ New Statesman, 6 January 1967
  7. ↑ A. D. M. Walker, 'Review: Pagan Virtue: An Essay in Ethics. by John Casey’, The Philosophical Quarterly (1950–), Vol. 41, No. 162 (Jan. 1991), p. 115.
  8. ↑ Walker, p. 115.
  9. ↑ Walker, p. 115.
  10. ↑ "Spectator". The Spectator. 29 April 2000.
  11. ↑ Covell, p. 25.
  12. ↑ Covell, p. 25.
  13. ↑ Covell, p. 25.
  14. ↑ Covell, p. 26.
  15. ↑ Covell, p. 26.
  16. ↑ Covell, p. 26.
  17. ↑ Covell, p. 27.
  18. ↑ Covell, pp. 27–28.
  19. ↑ Covell, p. 28.
  20. ↑ Cockett, p. 219.
  21. ↑ Leo Robson, 'Collected Essays by Hanif Kureishi – review', The Observer (13 March 2011).
  22. ↑ The London Review of Books, 14 April 2011
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.