Is Civility a Sham?

Lectures & Interviews

Is Civility a Sham?

TED Salon Talk, November 2018

The Open Mind

The Value of Disagreements and Limits of Intolerance

Acknowledging Equality

The seventh Balzan-Skinner lecture and symposium with Balzan-Skinner Fellow Dr Teresa Bejan, April 2016

As the core premise of modern moral and political philosophy, equality often demands more allegiance than investigation. The question of its historical emergence as a social and political ideal is generally set aside in favor of identifying the causal and constitutive harms of various kinds of inequality – political, social, or economic. This talk will explore ideas of equality as a political principle, a religious commitment, and a social practice in seventeenth-century England. These fascinating but forgotten visions of “equality before egalitarianism” shed light on the development of a central concept in modern political thought while providing some analytical clarity and historical insight sorely missing in contemporary debates.

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Click here to watch on the Cambridge University CRASSH site

Two Concepts of Freedom (of Speech)

American Philosophical Society, April 2018

Philosophy Bites Interview

In conversation with Nigel Warburton on Civility

What does it mean to be civil in conversation with others? Is it always a virtue? Teresa Bejan, author of Mere Civility, discusses this topic and its long history in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Click the play button to listen to the podcast, or

click here to visit the Philosophy Bites website.

The Sacred Podcast

In conversation with Elizabeth Oldfield

In this episode, Teresa Bejan talks to Elizabeth Oldfield about her book, the importance of building resilience when being confronted with ideas different from our own, and why not having a thick skin when it comes to critique, might be a good thing.

The Political Philosophy Podcast

In conversation with Toby Buckle

Part 1 - Early American Religion

Prof. Bejan joins the podcast to discuss religion, civility, and toleration in early modern Europe and America.  She and Toby discuss the case of Roger Williams, the puritan minister who founded the colony of Rhode Island. 

Part 2 - Civility and Tone Policing

In the second part of the conversation, Prof. Bejan and Toby Buckle discuss civility on the left and right of U.S politics.  Professor Bejan agues that both sides should be more willing to continue the conversation and 'tolerate the disagreeableness of disagreement.'

WNYC Radio Interview

On The Virtue of Mutual Contempt

A polite protest at a restaurant last weekend led politicians and pundits to wonder whether, at long last, civility in America was dead. But as unique as this political moment might seem, rudeness and uncivil protest have been around for a long time — as has the debate over how a diverse society can best exist or whether it can at all. Brooke talks to Dr. Teresa M. Bejan, associate professor of political theory at Oxford University and author of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration, about our long history of uncivil disagreement and whether civility is all it's cracked up to be. 

Clear and Present Danger Podcast

Episode 12: Expert Opinion - Teresa Bejan

We enter the early modern age with an expert opinion featuring Teresa Bejan, associate professor at Oriel College, Oxford University and author of “Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration.” In this episode, Jacob and Teresa will discuss political thought on tolerance and the limits of religious speech in early modern England and colonial America. The episode investigates the writings of intellectual rock stars John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke and the less famous but hugely relevant Roger Williams.

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