People

Paul Billingham

MA, MPhil, DPhil

Associate Professor of Political Theory, DPIR
Fellow and Tutor in Politics, Magdalen College
AFFILIATION
CSSJ
Political Theory Network
College
Magdalen College
Office address
Magdalen College, Oxford, OX1 4AU.
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I joined DPIR as an Associate Professor in April 2018. Prior to this, I was a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford, from October 2015.

My research centres on normative questions about the relationship between the actions of the state and the beliefs and values of citizens, especially their religious beliefs. I consider both the way in which citizens’ beliefs might constrain state action, given the liberal demand that laws be justified to all citizens, and the ways in which the state might permissibly seek to influence citizens’ values, to conform them to liberal ideals. The former question concerns public justification and public reason, while the latter concerns the state's role in value-promotion and moral formation. Through this focus, my work touches upon many important topics within political theory, including state legitimacy, pluralism, freedom of conscience, religious exemptions, and the place of religion within public life.

Alongside this, I also have an interest in the phenomenon of public shaming, especially online public shaming, and have written on the ethical questions raised by this practice.

Research

Most of my research has been on debates concerning public justification and public reason: what kinds of reasons of values should be used to justify political institutions and laws, in the face of our many moral, philosophical, and religious disagreements? I have explored competing accounts of public justification and examined the implications of theories of public reason for religious citizens, and the compatibility of the view with Christianity, in particular. This has included interacting with the work of theologians.

My current work considers how the liberal state ought to respond to citizens - and especially religious groups - whose beliefs and practices do not seem to cohere with liberal values. Should the state actively confront, and seek to transform, the views of such citizens? On the other hand, should the law protect the autonomy of religious groups, including by granting them exemptions, even when this allows them to engage in illiberal practices? This had led me to think more generally about the proper basis for, and scope of, collective religious liberty.

Finally, I am also writing on the use of the internet, particularly social media, to criticise (perceived or actual) moral failures and misdemeanours. Under what conditions can this so-called 'online public shaming' be justified? And what are the responsibilities of the state, social media organisations, and the public, in response to cases of unjustified or disproportionate shaming?

More information about all of these research projects is available on my personal website.

Research interests:

My research interests include:

Political Theory, Liberalism, Religion

Teaching

Undergraduate: Introduction to the Theory of Politics (first year paper); Theory of Politics (core finals paper); Advanced Theories of Justice (finals paper).

Graduate: Theory of Politics MPhil core course; Reasonable Disagreement & Political Argument (second year MPhil option).

Paul Billingham

Publications

Journal Articles

2024

BILLINGHAM, P. (2024) “Subsidiarity, Sphere Sovereignty, and State Sovereignty”, European Journal of Political Theory [Preprint].
BILLINGHAM, P. and Taylor, A. (2024) “Can Civic Friendship Ground Public Reason?”, The Philosophical Quarterly, 74(1), pp. 24–45.

2023

BILLINGHAM, P. (2023) “Sharing Reasons and Emotions in a Non-Ideal Discursive System”, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, 22(3), pp. 294–314.
BILLINGHAM, P. (2023) “Religious Political Arguments, Accessibility, and Democratic Deliberation”, Notre Dame Law Review, 98(4), pp. 1595–1622.

2022

Billingham, P. and Taylor, A. (2022) “A framework for analyzing public reason theories”, European Journal of Political Theory, 21(4), pp. 671–691.

2021

Billingham, P. (2021) “Benjamin R. Hertzberg, Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy”, Journal of Moral Philosophy, 18(5), pp. 537–541.
Billingham, P. and Chaplin, J. (2021) “Introduction to the Special Issue on Religious Diversity, Political Theory, and Theology: Public Reason and Christian Theology”, Social Theory and Practice, 47(3), pp. 451–456.
Billingham, P. (2021) “Can Christians Join the Overlapping Consensus? Prospects and Pitfalls for a Christian Justification of Political Liberalism”, Social Theory and Practice, 47(3), pp. 519–547.

2020

Billingham, P. and Parr, T. (2020) “Enforcing social norms: The morality of public shaming”, European Journal of Philosophy, 28(4), pp. 997–1016.
Billingham, P. (2020) “Reasonable Disagreement About, and Within, Watson and Hartley’s Political Liberalism”, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 37(5), pp. 836–845.
Billingham, P. and Parr, T. (2020) “Online Public Shaming: Virtues and Vices”, Journal of Social Philosophy, 51(3), pp. 371–390.
Billingham, P. and Chaplin, J. (2020) “Diverse Religious Responses to Pluralism”, Political Theology, 21(4), pp. 279–283.

2019

Billingham, P. (2019) “THE SCOPE OF RELIGIOUS GROUP AUTONOMY: VARIETIES OF JUDICIAL EXAMINATION OF CHURCH EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS”, Legal Theory, 25(4), pp. 244–271.
Billingham, P. (2019) “State Speech as a Response to Hate Speech: Assessing ‘Transformative Liberalism’”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22(3), pp. 639–655.
Billingham, P. and Bonotti, M. (2019) “Introduction: Hate, Offence and Free Speech in a Changing World”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22(3), pp. 531–537.
Billingham, P. (2019) “State Sovereignty, Associational Interests, and Collective Religious Liberty”, Secular Studies, 1(1), pp. 114–127.

2018

Billingham, P. (2018) “Sypnowich, Christine. <i>Equality Renewed: Justice, Flourishing and the Egalitarian Ideal</i>. New York: Routledge, 2017. Pp. 252. $155.00 (cloth)”., Ethics, 129(1), pp. 144–149.
Billingham, P. (2018) “Consensus, Convergence, Restraint, and Religion”, Journal of Moral Philosophy, 15(3), pp. 345–361.
Billingham, P. and Taylor, A. (2018) “Introduction to the Symposium on Matthew Kramer’s Liberalism with Excellence”, The American Journal of Jurisprudence, 63(1), pp. 1–7.
Billingham, P. and Taylor, A. (2018) “Liberal Perfectionism, Moral Integrity, and Self-Respect”, The American Journal of Jurisprudence, 63(1), pp. 63–79.

2017

Billingham, P. (2017) “Public Reason and Religion: The Theo-Ethical Equilibrium Argument for Restraint”, Law and Philosophy, 36(6), pp. 675–705.
Billingham, P. (2017) “Convergence liberalism and the problem of disagreement concerning public justification”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 47(4), pp. 541–564.
Billingham, P. (2017) “How Should Claims for Religious Exemptions be Weighed?”, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 6(1), pp. 1–23.
Billingham, P. (2017) “Liberal perfectionism and Quong’s internal conception of political liberalism”, Social Theory and Practice, 43(1), pp. 79–106.

2016

Billingham, P. (2016) “Convergence Justifications Within Political Liberalism: A Defence”, Res Publica, 22(2), pp. 135–153.
Billingham, P. (2016) “Does political community require public reason? On Lister’s defence of political liberalism”, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, 15(1), pp. 20–41.

2015

Billingham, P. (2015) “Can my religion influence my conception of justice? Political liberalism and the role of comprehensive doctrines”, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 20(4), pp. 403–424.

Chapters

2023

Billingham, P. (2023) “Religion, democratic deliberation, and the requirement of fallibilism”, in Beyond Classical Liberalism. Routledge India, pp. 147–162.

2021

BILLINGHAM, P. (2021) “State Responses to Incongruence: Toleration and Transformation”, in M. Sardoč (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 229–247.
BILLINGHAM, P. and Parr, T. (2021) “Should We Shame Those Who Ignore Social Distancing Guidelines?”, in A. Bhattacharya and F. Niker (eds.) Political Philosophy in a Pandemic. Bloomsbury Academic.
Billingham, P. (2021) “State Responses to Incongruence: Toleration and Transformation”, in The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration. Springer Nature, pp. 1–19.

2019

Billingham, P. and Chaplin, J. (2019) “Law, religion, and public reason”, in R. Sandberg et al. (eds.) Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 128–148.
Billingham, P. (2019) “Shaping religion: the limits of transformative liberalism”, in J. Seglow and A. Shorten (eds.) Religion and Political Theory Secularism, Accommodation and the New Challenges of Religious Diversity. Rowman and Littlefield International, pp. 57–77.
Billingham, P. (2019) “Exemptions for Religious Groups and the Problem of Internal Dissent”, in J. Adenitire (ed.) Religious Beliefs and Conscientious Exemptions in a Liberal State. Hart Publishing.