[CANCELLED] Food for Thought with Billy Christmas
Time:
- 21/11/2024
13:00 - 14:00
[This event has been cancelled.]
About the discussion
The discussion will centre around Dr Christmas’ paper that attempts to map an emerging school of thought that takes seriously the need for strong a stable state for the protection of liberal society. It often prioritises the maintenance of a strong state, for the sake of liberal values. I call it state capacity liberalism. This school of thought takes a very long view of history and identifies the eccentric features of contemporary liberal states to explain two causally correlated features: low levels of violence and high levels of economic growth. These states wield huge amounts of coercive capacity, and yet resort to it less. The rules according to which force is used outline our rights, freedom, and status as political equals. State capacity liberals believe that if we care about liberal society we should care about understanding and sustaining the seemingly bizarre and certainly contingent equilibrium that generates it. State capacity liberalism is a form of non-ideal theory that is compatible with a wide range of ideal theories within the liberal family, freedom, equality, democracy, and markets are generally mutually supportive.
About the speaker
Dr Billy Christmas is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at King’s College London in the department of political economy, and an affiliated scholar of the Classical Liberal Institute at the NYU School of Law. He teaches at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and economics. His first book, Property and Justice: A Liberal Theory of Natural Rights was published with Routeldge in 2021, and he has published articles in journals such as Economics and Philosophy, The Journal of Politics, and The Philosophical Quarterly. He is also coauthor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on “Libertarianism”.
About the series
This will be the next instalment of our monthly Food for Thought discussion series, hosted in partnership with the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham, at which academics present their current research to a small group of academics, professionals and students over a sandwich lunch. The purpose of these discussions is for participants to discuss and engage with research drawing on notions found within the classical liberal tradition. As such, discussions touch on a variety of disciplines including economics, philosophy, history, ethics, theology, and law. We hope to form a community of life-long learners united by the exchange of ideas and appreciation for the classical liberal tradition.
Doors open at 12:30, with a sandwich lunch provided.
Location
Venue:2 Lord North Street, London SW1
Address: