Roger Scruton, Ph. D. is currently Research Professor for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences where he teaches philosophy at their graduate school in both Washington and Oxford. He is also Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. Dr. Scruton is a writer, philosopher and public commentator. He has specialized in aesthetics with particular attention to music and architecture. He engages in contemporary political and cultural debates from the standpoint of a conservative thinker and is well known as a powerful polemicist. He has written widely in the press on political and cultural issues.

Professor Scruton’s most recent books include A Political Philosophy (Continuum Books, 2006), a thoughtful response to the development and decline of western civilization, The West and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat (ISI Books, 2001), an analysis of the values held by the ‘West’ and how they are distinct from those held by other cultures; Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged (Encounter Books 2007) and a third edition of The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) which provides a concise and comprehensive collection of definitions for political thought and processes. 2009 will see the publication of Beauty (Oxford University Press), which will be published in May, and Understanding Music: Philosophy and Interpretation (Continuum), to be published in June. Mark Dooley's biography Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach will also be published this year.