The Virtues of Toleration

JOHN GRAY

TOLERATION is a virtue that has lately fallen on hard times. Old-fashioned toleration—the toleration defended by Milton and by the older liberals, such as Locke—sprang from an acceptance of the imperfectibility of human beings, and from a belief in the importance of freedom in the constitution of the good life. Since we cannot be perfect, and since virtue cannot be forced on people but is rather a habit of life they must themselves strive to acquire, we were enjoined to tolerate the shortcomings of others, even as we struggled with our own. On this older view, toleration is a precondition of any stable modus vivendi among incorrigibly imperfect beings.

Featured Tags

JOHN GRAY

TOLERATION is a virtue that has lately fallen on hard times. Old-fashioned toleration—the toleration defended by Milton and by the older liberals, such as Locke—sprang from an acceptance of the imperfectibility of human beings, and from a belief in the importance of freedom in the constitution of the good life. Since we cannot be perfect, and since virtue cannot be forced on people but is rather a habit of life they must themselves strive to acquire, we were enjoined to tolerate the shortcomings of others, even as we struggled with our own. On this older view, toleration is a precondition of any stable modus vivendi among incorrigibly imperfect beings.