Tolerating the Conditionally Tolerant The Uneasy Case of Salvation Religions

How can a tolerant, liberal political culture tolerate the presence of only conditionally tolerant illiberal sub-cultures while remaining true to its principles of tolerance? The problem falls within the intersection of two developments in the thinking of two of the leading anglophone philosophers o...

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Published inDemocratic theory (Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)) Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 86
Main Author Edmundson, William A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Berghahn Books, Inc 01.06.2020
Subjects
Anglophones
Liberalism
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Philosophers
Political culture
Rawls, John
Rawls, John (1921-2002)
Religions
Subcultures
Tolerance
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Summary:How can a tolerant, liberal political culture tolerate the presence of only conditionally tolerant illiberal sub-cultures while remaining true to its principles of tolerance? The problem falls within the intersection of two developments in the thinking of two of the leading anglophone philosophers of the last half-century, Bernard Williams and John Rawls. Rawls, particularly, struggled with the problem of how a liberal society might stably survive the clash of plural sub-cultures that a liberal society - unless it is oppressively coercive - must itself foster and allow to flourish. And he separately struggled with the problem of how liberal peoples might peacefully share the planet with illiberal, but "decent" peoples elsewhere. This article shows that Rawls's two solutions do not easily mix, and argues that state-approved early education must do more than merely to inform children that losing their faith will not land them in jail. Keywords: liberalism, multiculturalism, pluralism, Rawls, toleration, Bernard Williams
ISSN:2332-8894
2332-8908
DOI:10.3167/dt.2020.070106