UNLIKE MANY OF those whose tiers-mondiste sympathies are merely gestural or rhetorical, the philosopher Roger Scruton has an honourable record of opposing totalitarian tyranny and standing up for unfashionable causes, as both the Czechs and the Lebanese Maronites have reason to know.

In his latest book, which is a  of concision, learning and wisdom, Scruton brings his knowledge of law, politics and world religions to bear on what, fundamentally, makes 'the West' different from 'the rest', without implying that in all respects the former is the best.

Scruton sees the West's main achievement