Toleration without limits: A construction and defence of Pierre Bayle's philosophical commentary
Publication Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1-2017
Abstract
Pierre Bayle was a defender of toleration whose distinctive contribution was to show that the limits of religious toleration could not coherently be drawn by an appeal to religious truth. In circumstances in which the truth of the matter was at issue, any such move would lead its advocate to beg the question: an appeal to religious truth could not help adjudicate a dispute about religious truth. The wider implication of this is that the limits to toleration cannot be drawn by appeal to moral truth either—at least in circumstances in which moral truth is disputed. If toleration is limited, it will have to be on very different grounds. The result of this will be an account of the basis of politics that denies the possibility of moral foundations, and pushes us in the direction of a kind of realism, and a scepticism about the legitimacy of political authority.
Keywords
Toleration, Pierre Bayle, Moral truth, Scepticism, Religious truth
Discipline
Ethics and Political Philosophy | Religion
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Religion in liberal political philosophy
Editor
BARDON, Aurelia; LABORDE, Cecile
ISBN
9780198794394
Identifier
10.1093/oso/9780198794394.003.0019
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
KUKATHAS, Chandran. (2017). Toleration without limits: A construction and defence of Pierre Bayle's philosophical commentary. In Religion in liberal political philosophy (pp. ). : Oxford University Press.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2981
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198794394.003.0019