History: Toleration

Soon after taking power, three leaders of nonviolent African independence movements, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia immediately turned to violent means to suppress internal opposition. The paper examines the reasons for the success of their Gandhian nonviolent tactics in ousting British colonial governments and argues that these new heads of state lost confidence in nonviolence due to a mixture of self-serving expediency, a lack of understanding of nonviolence's many different forms, and the (...) constraints of inheriting a state already dependent on the use of force. (shrink)

In this article the question is posed whether the modern concept of tolerance is an appropriate category with which to evaluate the thought of Nicholas of Cusa. The classic question of unity and pluriformity is linked by Cusanus to the problem of the plurality of contradictory forms of truth. Thus for Cusanus the problem of truth can never be thought without the possibility of tolerance. Vice versa this implies that the subject of tolerance can never be broached without broaching the (...) subject of the problematics of truth. This is why Cusanus understands man as a 'second god', who is the border of his own world, and who is confronted with the problem that there are 'several gods'. If we develop the thought of tolerance in this way along with Cusanus, it has much in common with the enquiry into the possibilities and limits of the concepts of god in and for human existence. (shrink)

The article deals with a unique even within the age of European Enlightenment humanist essence and human rights activity of the great French philosopher, writer, poet Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire. The author focuses his attention on a new aspect of the well-known thinker - the unselfish and persistent protection of victims of religious intolerance, obscurantism, judicial tyranny. According to the author, Voltaire’s advocacy was the result of his political and legal socialization. This idea is supported by the facts of Voltaire’s (...) earlier life: the assistance to the villagers of Ferney, the intercession for the serfs from the oppression of the clergy, the humanist’s poems against tyranny and religious intolerance, against any violence and cruelty. Voltaire’s valuable judgments of natural law, legitimacy, justice and dignity of a person convincingly support the author’s hypothesis. (shrink)

This article explores the role of religion in Ottoman political legitimation. It shows that the Ottoman rulers were interested in a much more expansive, diverse form of political legitimation that included Islamic religious legitimation, but also used toleration and sultanic law to construct a more capacious form of political legitimation that included Muslim and non-Muslim populations of the empire.

This book review argues that Knasas's overview of Thomism is insightful and that it's application to the problem of tolerance is superb.

Pierre Bayle is perhaps most well-known for arguing in his Dictionary that the problem of evil cannot be solved by reason alone. This skepticism about theodicy is usually credited to a religious crisis suffered by Bayle in 1685 following the unjust imprisonment and death of his brother, the death of his father, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. But in this paper I argue that Bayle was skeptical about theodicy a decade earlier than these events, from at least (...) the time of his Sedan philosophy course. I then argue that both the Various Thoughts on the Comet and Philosophical Commentary on Luke 4:23, which are usually read as treatments of superstition and toleration respectively, are works that also closely engage the problem of evil and demonstratethe skepticism of Bayle toward theodicy. (shrink)

In the past decade, Islam has come to be associated more than ever with images of extremism and violence. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are stock characters in this association, in the aftermath of 11 September and the ‘war on terror’. Lost in all this is a long record of Muslim experience of non-violent change and peace-making. Yet Islam hardly glorifies violence — and does quite explicitly glorify its opposite. History offers much evidence of Muslim tolerance and civil engagement (...) with other faith and cultural traditions. Non-violent Islam could give fresh life to secularism in Muslim societies. It may help steer public space away from state-dominated as well as other forms of political Islam, with their foolish utopias. Realizing the ideals of non-violence is a perennial struggle for Islamic communities around the world - and is part of the struggle for democratic life. (shrink)