Do we need toleration as a moral virtue?

Res Publica 7 (3):273-292 (2001)
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Abstract

In this essay, I reconstruct tolerance as a moral virtue, by critically analysing its definition, circumstances, justification and limits. I argues that, despite its paradoxical appearance, tolerance qualifies as a virtue, by means of a restriction of its proper object to differences that are chosen. Since this excludes the most important and divisive differences of contemporary pluralism from the scope of the virtue of tolerance, the moral model of toleration cannot constitute the micro-foundation of the corresponding political practice. However, if the political ideal of toleration must be founded on independent political reasons of justice, the moral model can bridge the gap between private morality and public reason, providing citizens with moral motives to supplement the political obligation to neutrality.

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Anna Galeotti
Universita' degli Studi di Pavia

Citations of this work

The simplicity of toleration.Peter Königs - 2021 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 24 (1):5-24.
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References found in this work

A theory of freedom of expression.Thomas Scanlon - 1972 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (2):204-226.
Introduction.David Heyd - 1998 - In Toleration: An Elusive Virtue. Princeton University Press. pp. 3-17.

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