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Toleration

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Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

Introduction

The term “toleration” (and its cognates “tolerance” and “tolerant”) tends to have a positive resonance today. For example, to be named “the most tolerant country” might be a source of great national pride. However, toleration was not always the desired trophy to be held up high. Published just a little before the English Toleration Act of 1689 (as it is commonly known) was a pamphlet entitled Toleration tolerated (Taylor 1687) attributed to the late Bishop Jeremy Taylor. As the title suggests, toleration itself was the very subject of what was or was not to be embraced. How exactly toleration became one of the prized values of modern liberal democracies is an important but long and complicated story (Zagorin 2003) – much beyond the scope of a short entry. Toleration is also an idea faced with challenges today, challenges about its value and possibility (Brown 2006; Newey 1999; Creppell 2003). Thus, an equally important task is that of thinking about why toleration should...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    J. K. Numao

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  1. J. K. Numao
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Correspondence to J. K. Numao .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Tetsu Sakurai Ph.D

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Numao, J.K. (2020). Toleration. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_145-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_145-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6730-0

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