In this collection of essays distinguished political philosophers discuss the problems of toleration which arise in multi-cultural and multi-racial society. They ask whether allegiance to the group should take priority over allegiance to the wider society.

Engaging with a range of interconnected and highly topical issues of identity, self-determination and secession, this book examines the import and implications of 'identity claims', and looks into 'identity politics' motivated by such claims, which is becoming ever more salient in democratic and culturally and ethnically heterogeneous states. It discusses nationalism as an important component of identity of individuals and groups, and a position that generates claims of self-determination and secession on the part of ethnic and cultural groups. It also examines patriotism, which until recently seemed to be on the wane, but has undergone a dramatic revival after the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001 and the start of a global 'war on terror'. The book offers a typology of facets of patriotism, an assessment of its moral standing, and a critique of the beliefs about the patria it characteristically involves. Also discussed are topics such as political liberalism vs. 'identity liberalism', the ways a liberal society should treat nonliberal communities within it, the role of heritage and remembrance in national identity, the status of national minorities as an issue of equality, arrangements concerning indigenous peoples and intrastate autonomy as an alternative to secession, and whether secession can be a legal act. The book includes contributions by prominent philosophers and political and legal theorists from Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United States.

The Edict of Nantes, passed in 1598, established an uneasy truce between the Protestants and Roman Catholics in France, ushering in an era of religious pluralism and a period of expansion for French Protestants into all areas of the nation's life. This volume traces the evolution of French Protestantism from violence and sectarianism in the 16th century, to social conformity and ambivalence in the 17th and, in the 18th, to an increasing openness to other traditions. A final section of the book addresses the themes of toleration and religious identity.

This book offers an original contribution to the debate on contemporary democratic ethics. It argues that public culture provides the mediating spaces required for processes of encounter, but should be supplemented with an open dialog on history, memory, and identity. Since democratic modernity is consolidating its new phase characterized by the multiplicity of perspectives, the mediation of conflict, identity, and memory are required to continue fostering mutual understanding and the identification of issues of common concern. The historical emergence of a public culture is a democratic gain. Recognizing this offers opportunities for ethical transformation that respects diversity but also addresses the realities of conflict under conditions of post modernity.

Oxford Handbooks of Political Science are the essential guide to the state of political science today. With engaging contributions from 51 major international scholars, the Oxford Handbook of Political Theory provides the key point of reference for anyone working in political theory and beyond.

Toleration in Comparative Perspective is a collection of essays that explores conceptions of toleration and tolerance in Asia and the West. It tests the common assumption in Western political discourse and contemporary political theory that toleration is a uniquely Western virtue. Toleration in modern Western philosophy is understood as principled noninterference in the practices and beliefs of others that one disapproves of or, at least, dislikes. Although toleration might be seen today as a quintessential liberal value, precedents to this modern concept also existed in medieval times while Indigenous American stories about welcome challenge the very possibility of noninterference. The modern Western philosophical concept of toleration is not always easily translated into other philosophical traditions, but this book opens a dialogue between various traditions of thought to explore precisely the ways in which overlap and distinctions exist. What emerges is the existence of a family of resemblances in approaches to religious and cultural diversity from a program of pragmatic noninterference in the Ottoman Empire to deeper notions of acceptance and inclusiveness amongst the Newar People in the Kathmandu Valley. The development of an Islamic ethic of tolerance, the Daoist idea of all-inclusiveness, and Confucian ideas of broad-mindedness, respect, and coexistence to the idea of ‘the one in the many’ in Hindu thought are examined along with sources for intolerance, tolerance, and toleration in Pali Buddhism, early modern Japan, and contemporary India.

Publisher Description

Toleration on Trial offers the only multidisciplinary study available on the issue of toleration, in the context of deep and difficult conflicts over ideological, cultural, and identity issues in today's mobilized political environment. The importance of individual attitudes and institutional/cultural arrangements is explored as a central axis in the meaning of toleration as a principle and practically in relation to demands for toleration of religious expression, gay rights, and the Islamic sources of toleration.

This book offers interdisciplinary and cross-national perspectives on the challenges of negotiating the contours of religious tolerance in Europe. In today’s Europe, religions and religious individuals are increasingly framed as both an internal and external security threat. This is evident in controls over the activities of foreign preachers but also, more broadly, in EU states’ management of migration flows, marked by questions regarding the religious background of migrating non-European Others. This book addresses such shifts directly by examining how understandings of religious freedom touch down in actual contexts, places, and practices across Europe, offering multidisciplinary insights from leading thinkers from political theory, political philosophy, anthropology, and geography. The volume thus aims to ground ideal liberal democratic theory and, at the same time, to bring normative reflection to grounded, ethnographic analyses of religious practices. Such ‘grounded’ understandings matter, for they speak to how religions and religious difference are encountered in specific places. They especially matter in a European context where religion and religious difference are increasingly not just securitised but made the object of violent attacks. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, philosophy, geography, religious studies, and the sociology and anthropology of religion.

This comprehensive work provides an up-to-date survey of social and political philosophy, charting its history and key figures and movements, and addressing enduring questions as well as contemporary research.