As part of the "Spectacle of Toleration" conference, Brian Leiter, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago will present Toleration: Its Nature and Moral Justification at Salve Regina University’s Bazarsky Lecture Hall. Professor Leiter is the author of Why Tolerate Religion? (Princeton University Press 2013). He is the Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values. He teaches and writes primarily in the areas of moral, political, and legal philosophy, in both Anglophone and Continental traditions. The presentation will be about the nature of tolerance and legal protections for religion.

Toleration becomes relevant when one group disapproves of the beliefs and practices of another group, but nonetheless “puts up” with the disfavored beliefs and practices. Not every case of “putting up” with another group counts, however, as toleration; we do well to distinguish cases of indifference, Hobbesian compromise and lack of means, from genuine, or principled, toleration. In principled toleration, one group disapproves of the beliefs and practices of another group, but nonetheless believes it is morally obligated to permit those beliefs and practices to persist. In the modern era, the Kantian and utilitarian traditions supply reasons in support of principled toleration. Importantly, those reasons favor principled toleration beyond the case of religious beliefs and practices, although no legal systems have yet extended the bounds of principled toleration that far.

Registration is required for this free lecture, which is sponsored by the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom.

See http://www.spectacleoftoleration.org/ai1ec_event/toleration-its-nature-and-moral-justification/?instance_id=47 for details and registration.