Abstract
The last two decades have seen the (re)emergence of the concept of recognition in ethical and political theory. Oftentimes, recognition is seen as a deeper, more developed version of tolerance, without the problems that tolerance purportedly has. We should not “merely” tolerate different individuals, identities and cultures, but recognize them, or so the argument goes. This move from tolerance to recognition is not without its critics. We will outline some of these criticisms and address them with the resources provided by the theory of recognition. We will suggest that while some of the criticisms are unfounded, the move from tolerance to recognition has a number of problems that the critics have correctly pointed out. The relationship between tolerance and recognition is complex: both have their own aims and functions. We will suggest that there are cases–especially ones that involve deep moral disagreements–where tolerance is a more reasonable aim than recognition.
References
Anderson, Sybol Cook. Hegel’s Theory of Recognition: From Oppression to Ethical Liberal Modernity. London: Continuum, 2009. Search in Google Scholar
Barry, Brian. Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism. Cambridge: Polity, 2001. Search in Google Scholar
Bowlin, John, “Nature, Grace, and Toleration: Civil Society and the Twinned Church,” Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics 21 (2001), 85–104. 10.5840/asce2001217Search in Google Scholar
Campbell & Manning, “Microaggressions and Moral Cultures”. Comparative Sociology 13 (2014), 692–726. Search in Google Scholar
Cohen, A. J. “What Toleration is,” Ethics 115 (2004), 68–95. 10.1086/421982Search in Google Scholar
Forst, Rainer. “To Tolerate Means to Insult: Toleration, Recognition and Emancipation”. In Bert van den Brink & David Owen (ed.). Recognition and Power: Axel Honneth and the Tradition of Critical Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 215–237. Search in Google Scholar
Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press, 2014. Search in Google Scholar
Furedi, Frank. On Toleration. A Defence of Moral Independence. London: Continuum, 2011. Search in Google Scholar
Galeotti, Anna. Tolerance as Recognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Search in Google Scholar
Honneth, Axel. The Struggle for Recognition. Cambridge: Polity, 1995. Search in Google Scholar
Honneth, Axel. The Fragmented World of the Social: Essays in Social and Political Philosophy. Albany: State Univeristy of New York Press, 1995. Search in Google Scholar
Honneth, Axel. The I in We: Studies in the Theory of Recognition. Cambridge: Polity, 2014. Search in Google Scholar
Honneth, Axel & Fraser, Nancy (ed.). Redistribution or Recognition? London: Verso, 2003. Search in Google Scholar
Horton, J. “Toleration.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 9, 1998. Search in Google Scholar
Ikäheimo, Heikki & Laitinen, Arto. “Analyzing Recognition: Identification, Acknowledgement, and Recognitive Attitude towards Persons”. Bert van den Brink & David Owen (ed.). Recognition and Power: Axel Honneth and the Tradition of Critical Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 33–56. Search in Google Scholar
Kristjansson, Kristjan. Virtues and Vices in Positive Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 10.1017/CBO9781139177818Search in Google Scholar
Langerak, Edward. Civil Disagreement: Personal Integrity in a Civil Society. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press. 2014. Search in Google Scholar
Malik, Keenan. “The Failure of Multiculturalism.” Foreign Affairs. March/April 2015. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/western-europe/2015-03-01/failure-multiculturalism Search in Google Scholar
McBride, Cillian. Recognition. Cambridge: Polity, 2013. Search in Google Scholar
Mendus, Susan. Toleration and the Limits of Liberalism. Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1989. 10.1007/978-1-349-20056-6Search in Google Scholar
Norenzayan, Ara. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Search in Google Scholar
Pound, Marcus. Žižek. A (very) Critical Introduction. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008. Search in Google Scholar
Ramadan, Tariq. The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism. London: Allen Lane, 2010. Search in Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. “The Erosion of Tolerance and the Resistance of the Intolerable.” Diogenes 44/4 (1996). 10.1177/039219219604417621Search in Google Scholar
Scanlon, T.M. The Difficulty of Tolerance. Essays in Political Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 10.1017/CBO9780511615153Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Christian. What is a person? Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. “The Politics of Recognition”. In A. Gutman (ed.). Multiculturalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Search in Google Scholar
Thompson, Simon. The Political Theory of Recognition: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity, 2006. Search in Google Scholar
Vainio, Olli-Pekka. “Virtue of Tolerance”. In N. Brunsveld & R. Trigg (ed.), Religion in the Public Sphere. Utrecht: Ars Disputandi Supplement Series, 2011, 273–284. Search in Google Scholar
Williams, Robert. Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Search in Google Scholar
©2016 Olli-Pekka Vainio, Aku Visala
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
