Teresa Bejan - How did Equality become an Egalitarian Ideal?
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Noel Salter Room, New College
The Pharos Autumn Lectures for 2026
Today, political theorists and philosophers treat as axiomatic the claim that all persons are equal. Dig deeper, however, and what we mean by equality—and what it demands from us, politically and otherwise—is far from obvious. Does it mean that we are all the same, and so the same standards should apply indifferently to everyone? Or does it mean that we are all different in ways similarly deserving of respect? These questions, and many more, reflect the profound ambiguities and contradictions that have riddled the history of the idea of equality.
This lecture series explores a radical turning point in that history. Lecture One will establish that, since antiquity, influential legal and philosophical traditions have held that all humans are fundamentally equal. Yet these claims proved surprisingly at home in a world defined by social hierarchy, political exclusion, and enslavement. It was only in seventeenth-century England, that the meaning—and practical circumstances—of equality began to change. Lecture Two traces this transformation in detail, revealing how equality finally became a concrete and actionable political ideal thanks to the unexpected legal arguments—and activism—of an unlikely egalitarian, the Puritan martyr and leading Leveller John Lilburne. Lecture Three examines the immediate reception of Lilburne’s argument among other self-styled “Levellers,” including the Diggers and Quakers, as well as canonical political philosophers like Hobbes and Locke, as they envisioned their own (more and less hierarchical) versions of a society of equals.
Teresa M. Bejan is Professor of Political Theory and a Fellow of Oriel College at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration (Harvard University Press) and First Among Equals: Visions of Equality before Egalitarianism (Belknap Press), as well as over two dozen academic articles and book chapters bringing historical perspectives to bear on questions in contemporary political theory. She is also the co-editor most recently of The Political Thought of John Locke: New Perspectives (Oxford University Press).
The Pharos Autumn Lectures for 2026
Today, political theorists and philosophers treat as axiomatic the claim that all persons are equal. Dig deeper, however, and what we mean by equality—and what it demands from us, politically and otherwise—is far from obvious. Does it mean that we are all the same, and so the same standards should apply indifferently to everyone? Or does it mean that we are all different in ways similarly deserving of respect? These questions, and many more, reflect the profound ambiguities and contradictions that have riddled the history of the idea of equality.
This lecture series explores a radical turning point in that history. Lecture One will establish that, since antiquity, influential legal and philosophical traditions have held that all humans are fundamentally equal. Yet these claims proved surprisingly at home in a world defined by social hierarchy, political exclusion, and enslavement. It was only in seventeenth-century England, that the meaning—and practical circumstances—of equality began to change. Lecture Two traces this transformation in detail, revealing how equality finally became a concrete and actionable political ideal thanks to the unexpected legal arguments—and activism—of an unlikely egalitarian, the Puritan martyr and leading Leveller John Lilburne. Lecture Three examines the immediate reception of Lilburne’s argument among other self-styled “Levellers,” including the Diggers and Quakers, as well as canonical political philosophers like Hobbes and Locke, as they envisioned their own (more and less hierarchical) versions of a society of equals.
Teresa M. Bejan is Professor of Political Theory and a Fellow of Oriel College at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration (Harvard University Press) and First Among Equals: Visions of Equality before Egalitarianism (Belknap Press), as well as over two dozen academic articles and book chapters bringing historical perspectives to bear on questions in contemporary political theory. She is also the co-editor most recently of The Political Thought of John Locke: New Perspectives (Oxford University Press).
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Where is it happening?
New College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherThe Pharos Foundation
