John Casey (born 1939) is a British academic and a writer for The Daily Telegraph. He has been described as "mentor" to Roger Scruton 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.
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. He later returned as a lecturer in English at Gonville and Caius College. 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. 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. 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."
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. Casey also identified physical courage as a pagan virtue, "the chief motives of which are patriotism and the love of honour". These elaborations of pagan virtue were designed to strengthen the moral tradition and challenge Kantian ideas that idolised Good Will.
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.
During his editorship of The Cambridge Review Casey expressed his conservative philosophy on politics, religion and culture. 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. In 1977 he defended single-sex colleges and also resisted the government's right to change a university's educational policy on political grounds. 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. Upon the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978, Casey opposed the suggestion that the Church should elect a Third World pope. 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".
Writers he published for the first time in The Cambridge Review included Gavin Stamp, Roger Scruton, Charles Moore, Oliver Letwin and Adair Turner.