Peter Balint, “Respecting Toleration: Traditional Liberalism and Contemporary Diversity” (Oxford University Press, 2017)
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What is Peter Balint’s background and what motivated him to write *Respecting Toleration*?
Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy. I'm Robert Talice. I'm Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figter. Carrie is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. Today my guest is Peter Ballant. Peter is senior lecturer and head of international and political studies at the University of New South Wales in Canberra. His new book, which is titled Respecting Toleration Traditional Liberalism and Contemporary Diversity, is published by Oxford University Press. Now in his book Peter defends toleration from several longstanding at this point philosophical criticisms. Deriving not from advocates of intolerance
so much as from theorists who hold that familiar liberal ideals and practices of toleration are insufficient for dealing properly with political and social and moral diversity. Now there's a lot to talk about. Uh but why don't we begin uh where we usually do, which is by greeting our guest. Hello, Peter.
Hi, Bob. Thanks for having me.
Well, thank you for joining us on New Books in Philosophy today. And thank you for writing uh such a wonderful book. Um, why don't you start us off uh by telling us uh a little bit about yourself and how you came to this project?
Thanks. Thanks Bob. Um as you mentioned I'm a political philosopher based in Australia, uh actually in Canberra. And I guess I came to this book partly from the side. I mean it's been an i i interest of mine prior to coming into the academy. So uh in one of the gaps in my academic career, I I was a teacher at uh TAFE, which is like alternative high school, and I got to see sort of multicultural practice in action and also having to teach some kind of multicultural educational policy. And it was there that I kinda had this strange disjuncture about what was going on and what were people being told to do and how they actually were in practice. And then When I decided to embark on this sort of a project, started to look at the questions of toleration, the questions of multiculturalism, I was really taken aback, and this is something that you took up in your introduction, by uh the baggage that toleration had.
To me it just seemed like toleration, why not? It sounds great. Um but the number of people who told me you can't use the term toleration, it's disparaging, it's problematic for all these reasons, um really surprised me and I guess the the sort of itch I was trying to scratch in in in in this project, which is culminated in the book, was making sense of this concept of toleration and understanding about how people could s quite simply live their lives if they wanted to live Um, as long as they weren't harming others.
Right, excellent. So um that's uh it it's it it is interesting, I should say, just b before we get to to talk about the nuts and bolts of the book. that um so much of the site of uh the um contemporary political, theoretic, political philosophical uh discourses about toleration. do have as as their site sort of schools, right? I mean this is one of the places where the issues really get get raised, right?
Absolutely.
Um so th that's uh th that that strikes me then as a as a pretty um natural or organic uh uh uh uh uh uh launching point uh from which to get into the issues. So why don't we then um uh d sort of pick up with uh with with w with w uh what you were just articulating, which is um in in fact where the book starts. Um so the book, uh as you describe it, uh very early Is a defence as you put it, as of the ideal and practice of political toleration. Now, um I suspect it won't be a surprise to all listeners. Um, particularly won't be a surprise to the listeners who uh have followed the um uh debates uh in multicultural political philosophy uh for the past twenty years. Um but it might be a surprise to some uh listeners who aren't uh in vi you know who haven't been following those debates to find that um toleration stands in need of a defense.
Um so why don't we begin there? Um what have philosophers
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Peter Balint’s background and what motivated him to write *Respecting Toleration*?
0:07–7:10
2
How do contemporary philosophers criticize liberal toleration and what are the three main challenges?
7:10–14:35
3
What is the distinction between ‘toleration’ (general permissiveness) and ‘tolerance’ (forbearance) in Balint’s framework?
14:35–22:05
4
Why does Balint argue that a non‑moralised, descriptive account of forbearance tolerance is preferable?
22:05–29:55
5
How does the concept of liberal neutrality relate to toleration and what problems does it solve?
29:55–36:24
6
What role do respect and recognition of difference play in accommodating diversity, and why does Balint critique them?
36:24–43:52
7
How does Balint apply his toleration‑neutrality theory to concrete issues like welfare distribution and national defence?
43:52–51:05
8
What are the main take‑aways and future implications of Balint’s defence of toleration for liberal democracies?
51:05–59:38
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