Regulating moral dissent in an open society: The dutch experience with pragmatic tolerance
Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 26 (3):225 – 244 (2001)
| Abstract | In pluralistic modern societies, moral dissent will, to an increasing extent, be an inescapable fact in our lives. Moral dissent, however, involves various serious dangers: escalation of conflicts, the use of violence, flourishing of radical extremism and even civil war. There are basically two ways in which these threats can be addressed: coercive enforcement of consensus or tolerance. First, we could try to eliminate moral dissent by using more dictatorial forms of consensus formation, like propaganda, indoctrination and terror. This, however, would endanger or even destroy the open society. Therefore, from a moral point of view, tolerance appears to be the more desirable antidote to the unwanted effects of moral dissent. This paper aims to contribute to the discussions about the regulation of moral dissent and the formation of moral consensus by analyzing one of the most important and idiosyncratic elements of the Dutch way of handling these issues: pragmatic tolerance. First, some general thoughts are developed about moral consensus, moral dissent and tolerance as a means of regulating dissent. In addition, the characteristic Dutch policy of pragmatic tolerance is described. Finally, some of the pros and cons of pragmatic tolerance are analyzed from an ethical perspective. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,711 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesAnna Elisabetta Galeotti (2001). Do We Need Toleration as a Moral Virtue? Res Publica 7 (3).
Rodney Fopp (2011). “Repressive Tolerance”: Herbert Marcuse's Exercise in Social Epistemology. Social Epistemology 24 (2):105-122.
Andrew Fiala (2003). Stoic Tolerance. Res Publica 9 (2).
Frederick A. Elliston (1982). Civil Disobedience and Whistleblowing: A Comparative Appraisal of Two Forms of Dissent. Journal of Business Ethics 1 (1):23 - 28.
Ann Breslin (1982). Tolerance and Moral Reasoning Among Adolescents in Ireland. Journal of Moral Education 11 (2):112-127.
Miriam Solomon (2001). Consensus in Science. The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 2001:193-204.
Wibren Van Der Burg (1998). Beliefs, Persons and Practices: Beyond Tolerance. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 1 (2):227 - 254.
Wibren van der Burg (1998). Beliefs, Persons and Practices: Beyond Tolerance. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 1 (2):227-254.
R. J. Royce (1982). Pluralism, Tolerance and Moral Education. Journal of Moral Education 11 (3):173-180.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads6 ( #145,761 of 551,054 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,341 of 551,054 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
