Table Of ContentROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
POLITICAL SCIENCE
ASPECTS OF TOLERATION
ASPECTS OF TOLERATION
Philosophical Studies
Edited by
JOHN HORTON & SUSAN MENDUS
Volume 41
First published 1985
This edition first published in 2010
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USAand Canada
by Routledge
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The collection © 1985 Methuen & Co. Ltd
The individual contributions © 1985 the respective authors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechan-
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 10: 0-415-49111-8 (Set)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-49111-2 (Set)
ISBN 10: 0-415-55582-5 (Volume 41)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-55582-1 (Volume 41)
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this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original
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ASPECTS
OF
TOLERATION
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
Edited by
JOHN HORTON &
SUSAN MENDUS
Methuen
London and New York
First published in 1985 by
Methuen & Co. Ltd
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Published in the USA by
Methuen & Co.
in association with Methuen, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
The collection © 1985 Methuen & Co. Ltd 1985
The individual contributions © the respective authors 1985
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
Filmset by Northumberland Press Ltd,
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Aspects of toleration.
1. Toleration
I. Horton, John II. Mendus, Susan
179'.9 BJ1431
ISBN 0-416-39290-3
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Aspects of toleration.
Includes index.
Contents: Introduction/John Horton and Susan Mendus-Toleration,
individual differences and respect for persons/ Albert W eale-Toleration and
right to freedom/Thomas Baldwin-[etc.]
1. Toleration-Addresses, Essays, Lectures
I. Horton, John Oohn P.) II. Mendus, Susan
BJ1431.A86 1985
179'.9 85-13656
ISBN 0-416-39290-3
Contents
Preface Vll
Introduction 1
JOHN HORTON AND SUSAN MENDUS
1 Toleration, individual differences
and respect for persons 16
ALBERT WEALE
2 Toleration and the right to freedom 36
THOMAS BALDWIN
3 Repressive toleration revisted:
Mill, Marcuse, Macintyre 53
ALEX CALLINICOS
4 Toleration and the English blasphemy law 75
DAVID EDWARDS
5 Harm, offence and censorship 99
SUSAN MENDUS
6 Toleration, morality and harm 113
JOHN HORTON
7 Toleration, harm and moral effect 136
PETER JONES
8 Toleration as a moral ideal 158
PETER P. NICHOLSON
Index 175
Preface
All the essays in this volume arose from a programme of studies
concerned with philosophical and theoretical aspects of toleration,
initiated and supported by the C. and J. B. Morrell Trust, based
at the University of York. The Trust supports an annual lecture
given by a person of international repute, a postgraduate course
on political philosophy with special reference to toleration
(financing five annual studentships), a research fellow, an annual
conference and a regular series of seminars attended by interested
members of the Politics and Philosophy Departments at York. The
essays in this volume, with one exception, were originally pre
sented as papers to the previously mentioned seminars and
benefited from their discussion in those meetings. The one
exception, the essay by Peter Jones, was presented at the first
annual Toleration Conference in 1983 and seemed especially
appropriate to be included in this volume. Peter Jones, a lecturer
in the Department ofPolitics at the University ofNewcastle, is the
only contributor who was not a member of either the Politics or
Philosophy Departments of the University of York. Thomas
Baldwin has subsequently moved to the University of Cambridge.
Our principal acknowledgement is of course to the Trustees of
the C. and J. B. Morrell Trust, both for their general support of
the study of toleration and in particular for their generous financial
and other assistance towards the publication of this book. All the
contributors have been helpful but we would especially like to
thank David Edwards, Peter Nicholson and Albert Weale for their
advice and suggestions. We have also been very fortunate that
Methuen chose as an external referee Professor David Raphael,
who has taken an exceptionally conscientious and constructive
interest in the book's progress. Another, anonymous, referee also
made some useful suggestions. The manuscript was typed most
ASPECTS OF TOLERATION
efficiently by Sally Baker, Sally Cuthbert, Barbara Dodds,
Kathleen Hunter, Barbara Olive and Dorothy Skidmore.Jo Guise
and Dorothy Skidmore also provided valuable administrative
assistance and Lynne Horton helped with proofreading. Finally,
Nancy Marten has been as sympathetic and helpful an editor as we
could hope to have had.
Introduction
JOHN HORTON AND SUSAN MENDUS
The essays in this volume are concerned with the theoretical and
conceptual issues involved in the idea of toleration. They discuss
these issues primarily in the context of contemporary debates
about racial, religious and sexual toleration. However, in con
sidering these problems, the contributors often refer to and draw
upon the work of earlier philosophers and political theorists. In
particular, John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty is a frequent point
of reference and it is this work that provides the theoretical
context for much contemporary writing on toleration. 1 However,
Mill's work itself is the culmination of over three hundred years
of discussion and debate about the place of toleration in the
modern state of Western Europe and, more latterly, North
America. In this introduction we shall first very briefly indicate
some of the main developments in ideas about toleration with
especial emphasis on Mill's seminal essay; we will then consider the
three main areas of practical concern with which the essays in this
collection deal; and finally we will identify what we take to be
some of the most significant theoretical issues which are relevant
to those practical problems and which the essays in this volume
explore.
*
Many of the most powerful and lasting arguments for toleration
have their roots in the religious controversies and struggles,
originating with the Reformation, which divided Europe in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early formulations and
defences of the idea of toleration were often developed to cope
1
