Reviews'… simply the most impressive philosophical work specifically on toleration that I have ever read …' John Horton, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Series Volume NumberSeries Number 103
Table Of ContentIntroduction; Part I. Between Power and Morality: The Historical Discourse of Toleration: 1. Toleration: concept and conceptions; 2. More than a prehistory: Antiquity and the Middle Age; 3. Reconciliation, schism, peace: humanism and the Reformation; 4. Toleration and sovereignty: political and individual; 5. Natural law, toleration and revolution: the rise of liberalism and the aporias of freedom of conscience; 6. The Enlightenment - for and against toleration; 7. Toleration in the modern era; 8. Routes to toleration; Part II. A Theory of Toleration: 9. The justification of toleration; 10. The finitude of reason; 11. The virtue of tolerance; 12. The tolerant society.
SynopsisToleration is an indispensable yet ambivalent concept in pluralistic societies. Is it based on mutual respect or on condescension? Why is it right to tolerate what is wrong? This book is the most comprehensive existing study of debates over toleration since antiquity and develops a theory for our time., The concept of toleration plays a central role in pluralistic societies. It designates a stance which permits conflicts over beliefs and practices to persist while at the same time defusing them, because it is based on reasons for coexistence in conflict - that is, in continuing dissension. A critical examination of the concept makes clear, however, that its content and evaluation are profoundly contested matters and thus that the concept itself stands in conflict. For some, toleration was and is an expression of mutual respect in spite of far-reaching differences, for others, a condescending, potentially repressive attitude and practice. Rainer Forst analyses these conflicts by reconstructing the philosophical and political discourse of toleration since antiquity. He demonstrates the diversity of the justifications and practices of toleration from the Stoics and early Christians to the present day and develops a systematic theory which he tests in discussions of contemporary conflicts over toleration.