Philosophy Revision Notes: Tolerance
AQA AS Philosophy Revision Notes – Tolerance
What is Tolerance?
Weak and Strong Senses of ‘Tolerance’
• Tolerance requires difference – you don’t ‘tolerate’ something that you agree with.
• However, tolerance isn’t a ‘live and let live’ attitude.
• There are several ways of responding to things that are ‘different’ (with respect to attitudes and beliefs):
o Someone can not care how other people live – this isn’t tolerance
o Someone can not object to how other people live – this is a weak sense of tolerance, because if a person ‘doesn’t mind’, how are they being tolerant?
o A stronger sense of ‘tolerance’ is the fact that the other person’s view is different matters to you, because your own views matter to you.
• In the strong sense of tolerance, we only tolerate what is different and important to us
o For example, vegetarians disapprove of eating meat
o However, most don’t try and rid the world of meat-eaters, and hence, they tolerate the practice of eating meat
o But people that eat meat isn’t a moral issue, and aren’t apposed to vegetarians don’t tolerate vegetarians – they just don’t mind them.
• To tolerate isn’t to welcome or embrace – what is tolerated is somehow problematic
• We may want to suppress this thing, but toleration means that we do not try to do so.
• During these notes, we shall talk of tolerance in ‘the strong sense’
Opposition
• If tolerance involves opposition, then what kind of opposition?
o If I dislike coffee, and would like it to be banned, am I being tolerant by not lobbying for it to be banned?
▪ This seems a rather trivial view of tolerance
• If tolerance is about dislike, then what about a racist who doesn’t act upon his racism? Would he be tolerant?
o Once again, this doesn’t sound right – surely a tolerant person wouldn’t be a racist in the
What is Tolerance?
Weak and Strong Senses of ‘Tolerance’
• Tolerance requires difference – you don’t ‘tolerate’ something that you agree with.
• However, tolerance isn’t a ‘live and let live’ attitude.
• There are several ways of responding to things that are ‘different’ (with respect to attitudes and beliefs):
o Someone can not care how other people live – this isn’t tolerance
o Someone can not object to how other people live – this is a weak sense of tolerance, because if a person ‘doesn’t mind’, how are they being tolerant?
o A stronger sense of ‘tolerance’ is the fact that the other person’s view is different matters to you, because your own views matter to you.
• In the strong sense of tolerance, we only tolerate what is different and important to us
o For example, vegetarians disapprove of eating meat
o However, most don’t try and rid the world of meat-eaters, and hence, they tolerate the practice of eating meat
o But people that eat meat isn’t a moral issue, and aren’t apposed to vegetarians don’t tolerate vegetarians – they just don’t mind them.
• To tolerate isn’t to welcome or embrace – what is tolerated is somehow problematic
• We may want to suppress this thing, but toleration means that we do not try to do so.
• During these notes, we shall talk of tolerance in ‘the strong sense’
Opposition
• If tolerance involves opposition, then what kind of opposition?
o If I dislike coffee, and would like it to be banned, am I being tolerant by not lobbying for it to be banned?
▪ This seems a rather trivial view of tolerance
• If tolerance is about dislike, then what about a racist who doesn’t act upon his racism? Would he be tolerant?
o Once again, this doesn’t sound right – surely a tolerant person wouldn’t be a racist in the