Nathan Gardels interviews Michael Sandel at Noema Magazine:
Sandel: Here we should talk about competing conceptions of tolerance. There is a version of tolerance that goes with a version of liberalism that insists on neutrality toward the good life or toward virtue. That’s what we might call a “tolerance of avoidance.” It tries to be neutral in the sense that it seeks not to pass judgment, not to be judgmental on what way of life is worthy and higher, but simply lets people pursue their own paths, whatever they may be, consistent with a similar liberty for others. On the face of it, this seems like an attractive way of contending with a pluralist society.
People disagree about the meaning of the good life. They disagree about questions of sexual morality. They disagree about the meaning of virtue. They disagree about how to raise their children. Rather than tangle with our fellow citizens in messy, contentious debates about virtue and the good life, isn’t it safer to seek a kind of toleration that doesn’t enter into those moral disputes? That’s the moral impulse and plausibility of liberalism as neutral.
more here.
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