Our task is to understand the moral ambiguities of tolerance. On the one hand, tolerance is surely a virtue in a society like ours--liberal, pluralist, contentious, and stubbornly religious. It is a habit we praise and a collection of actions and attitudes that we cannot imagine our common life succeeding without. On the other hand, it surely carries the taint of moral decadence and betrayal. Indeed, why should we tolerate beliefs that we consider false or vicious, social practices we consider dangerous or scandalous, institutional arrangements we consider cruel or corrupt? Why should we refuse to compel others to believe in ways that (by our lights) track the truth and act in ways that (again, by our lights) the just admire and praise? What reasons might be offered to quiet our desire to coerce the conduct of the wicked and correct the beliefs of the mistaken?

• Nathan the Wise Gotthold Lessing,
• A Letter Concerning Toleration John Locke
• The Politics of Toleration in Modern Life Susan Mendus
• Reading Packet