Tolerance

Tolerance is a module in the AQA AS Unit 2 Philosophy course.

Course Outline

Tolerance has been analysed as involving three components: objection, acceptance and rejection, but how clear-cut is that analysis? What reasons recommend tolerance: could tolerance be undesirable; how might being tolerant lead to the so-called paradoxes of tolerance?

Issues to be covered

The tolerant society
- Tolerance and the ideal of a liberal democracy: tolerance as the virtue of a pluralist democracy. Whether tolerant societies should be neutral with regard to conceptions of the good life; whether a culture which encourages tolerance, civility and respect for others should be nurtured.
- Arguments for tolerance: fallibility; pragmatism, the fact that coercion is ineffective and the threat posed by strife; the value of autonomy; the value of diversity. Arguments against tolerance: social cohesion; moral standards; repressive desublimation.
The tolerant individual
- What characteristics do tolerant individuals possess? The difference between tolerance and indifference, indulgence and weakness.
- Does tolerance merely imply that we leave other individuals alone to think and do as they please, or does it also require us to do or say nothing to offend others? Different conceptions of tolerance: permission, co-existence, respect and esteem.
Tensions and applications
- Could a liberal society tolerate a minority culture that doesn't respect its values without undermining those values? Could a liberal society nourish a particular culture and make judgements about the relative worth of diverse lifestyles without becoming intolerant?
- Tolerance, diversity and difference: issues raised by religious and social diversity and difference.

Tolerance

Course Outline

Issues to be covered

Lesson Infosheets

Revision Infosheets