TOLERATION AND POLITICAL CONFLICT
1 B. Williams, ‘Tolerating the Intolerable’, in Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline, Selected, edited with an introduction by A.W. Moore, Princeton/Oxford, Princeton Universitity Press, 2006, pp. 126-134, 126. 2 C. McKinnon, Toleration. A criticical introduction, London/New York, Routledge, 2006, pp. 6-7; cf. J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 126-1130. 3 A.E. Galeotti, Toleration as Recognition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 20; cf. R.H. Dees, Trust and Toleration, London/New York, Routledge, 2004, p. 4. 4 H. Paetzold, ‘Review essay. Respect and toleration considered’, in Philosophy and Social Criticism 34 (2008) 941-954, p. 951. TOLERATION AND POLITICAL CONFLICT
Tolerance as a Virtue of Justice
Abstract This article argues that the civic virtue of tolerance has to be understood as a virtue of justice. Based on an analysis of the concept of toleration and its paradoxes, it shows that toleration is a ‘normatively dependent concept’ that needs to take recourse to a conception of justice in order to solve these paradoxes. At the center of this conception of justice lies a principle of reciprocal and general justification with the help of which a distinction between moral norms and ethical values is possible. While the former are strictly binding and define the realm of the tolerable, the latter are subject to reasonable disagreement that calls for toleration. Essentially, the virtue of tolerance is the capacity and willingness to accept the principle and criteria of justification of generally binding norms in an ethically pluralist society.This virtue is analyzed with respect to its normative and epistemological components. Finally, the idea of a ‘tolerant character’ is discussed.
A Democracy of Distinction: Aristotle and the Work of Politics
Offering an ancient education for our times, Jill Frank's "A Democracy of Distinction" interprets Aristotle's writings in a way that reimagines the foundations, aims, and practices of politics, ancient and modern. Concerned especially with the work of making a democracy of distinction, Frank shows that such a democracy requires freedom and equality achieved through the exercise of virtue. Moving back and forth between Aristotle's writings and contemporary legal and political theory, Frank breathes new life into our conceptions of property, justice, and law by viewing them not only as institutions but as dynamic activities as well. Frank's innovative approach to Aristotle stresses his appreciation of the tensions and complexities of politics so that we might rethink and reorganize our own political ideas and practices. "A Democracy of Distinction" will be of enormous value to classicists, political scientists, and anyone interested in revitalizing democratic theory and practice.