Toleration on Trial
Contributions by Nathan J. Brown, Richard H. Dees, John Ferejohn, Rainer Forst, Anna Elisabetta Galeotti, James L. Gibson, Russell Hardin, Steven Kelts, George Klosko, Jack Knight, Charles Kurzman, Dimitri Landa, Partap B. Mehta, Emad Shahin, Karen Stenner Edited by Ingrid Creppell, Stephen Macedo
Not available to order
Publication date:
12 February 2008Length of book:
307 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781461634539
Toleration on Trial offers the only multidisciplinary study available on the issue of toleration, bringing together political psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, Islamic scholars, and political theorists to examine the most pressing debates in the field. The volume addresses the toleration question from a number of angles: toleration and its application to gay rights; Islam and toleration; institutional, ideological, and psychological preconditions for its practice; and philosophical and conceptual arguments for the principle of toleration.
The common thread running throughout the volume is the core question: Is toleration primarily a product of institutional arrangements, or is it an attitude of individuals? To answer this adequately, the authors believe that a contemporary analysis of the possibility, significance and requirements of toleration must be fully cognizant of the democratic, or more accurately—politically mobilized—background in which toleration becomes a difficult issue. Conflicts between deeply divided groups within nations and between groups across political boundaries pose the issue of threat and risk to a practice or way of life that many peoples find difficult to accept.
Can the idea and practice of toleration manage these in politically and ethically defensible ways? These essays address various aspects of the aim to establish or strengthen toleration among politically mobilized groups, in a context of contemporary democratic challenges.
The common thread running throughout the volume is the core question: Is toleration primarily a product of institutional arrangements, or is it an attitude of individuals? To answer this adequately, the authors believe that a contemporary analysis of the possibility, significance and requirements of toleration must be fully cognizant of the democratic, or more accurately—politically mobilized—background in which toleration becomes a difficult issue. Conflicts between deeply divided groups within nations and between groups across political boundaries pose the issue of threat and risk to a practice or way of life that many peoples find difficult to accept.
Can the idea and practice of toleration manage these in politically and ethically defensible ways? These essays address various aspects of the aim to establish or strengthen toleration among politically mobilized groups, in a context of contemporary democratic challenges.
This rich book illuminates toleration at a time of fear. Ranging from individual psychology to institutional arrangements, from law to norms, from religion to sexuality, and from West to East, the volume's sharply-etched essays offer guides to vexing challenges posed by human pluralism.