The Liberal Temper as Sanctuary: Nigel Biggar's Defense of Civil Discourse

The Liberal Temper as Sanctuary: Nigel Biggar's Defense of Civil Discourse

In an age where academic dialogue often devolves into digital pyres, Professor Nigel Biggar of Oxford stands as a reluctant sentinel. His latest work, The New Dark Age, is less a battle cry than a measured plea for what he calls "the liberal temper"—a disposition that treats alien viewpoints not as threats but as invitations to thoughtful engagement.

Biggar's journey into the culture wars began in 2017 when a Cambridge scholar called for his research project on empire to be "shut down." Since then, he has weathered cancellations, including a Dublin speaking engagement scuttled the night before its scheduled date. Yet his response remains characteristically aphoristic: "Listening to people who have not been much heard before is a good idea, but agreeing with whatever they say is not."

Rather than championing conquest, Biggar draws a "thick red line" around the practice of civil disagreement itself. He concedes that decolonization has merit in certain contexts, even as he deploys data to challenge claims of systemic racism. His true battle is for a homeland where accuracy precedes remedy, and where "a single visible cancellation causes multiple invisible self-cancellations." In defending this sanctuary of reasoned discourse, Biggar reminds us that the liberal temper may be the most fragile—and most sacred—ground we stand on.