TOLERATION: BETWEEN RESPECT AND FEAR

Abstract

Toleration is a concept that admits of many different conceptions. I attempt to reconstruct one such conception from what John Rawls terms “the burdens of judgment”, focusing on the political identity of the citizen as a basis of mutual respect. I argue that such a conception of toleration is sufficiently compelling and answers the demands placed upon it, one that does not deny the possibility of objective moral truth. I then attempt to draw out some implications for the controversial case of physician-assisted suicide, if we accept toleration thus understood. I conclude by highlighting the similarities between a Rawlsian account of toleration and Judith Shklar’s influential “liberalism of fear”: although a principled account of toleration is to be preferred, the history of political conflict over religion offers strong support for toleration when other accounts are deemed to be unpersuasive.