Tolerance Definition

What Exactly Does Tolerance Mean

Tolerance is a fair and objective attitude towards others which usually results from a conscious effort on the part of the individual. It is the capacity to experience and put up with something that we do not agree with or relate to without expressing disapproval.

Early in the 15th century, the Latin word tolerantia served as the basis for the English word Tolerance. This word's original meaning was to support or endure suffering. About the same period, it was also employed as a French word with a similar meaning. It started to be connected with its more contemporary sense in 1765. At the time, it came to mean a propensity to be unaffected by other people's opinions.

Synonyms

Tolerance can be substituted with a variety of other words. Tolerance has the following synonyms:

• Allowance
• Acceptance
• Impartiality
• Parity
• Fairness
• Equivalence

Some examples of tolerance antonyms are:

• Impatience
• Intolerance
• Disagreement
• Resistance

Happiness and Tolerance

Happiness is more likely to be felt by those who live in tolerant societies than by others. Individualism and the expression of interests and opinions are supported by tolerance, but at the same time, individual happiness rises to intolerant cultures due to the personal autonomy and the freedom of speech that comes with it. If a society tends to focus on collective happiness, then tolerance has a major role in making it possible.

Examples are the best way to explain Tolerance. Here is an easy example:

Jason is a Muslim, and Janelle is his closest friend. Janelle is baffled as to why Jason must pause five times each day to pray. It can be difficult because Janelle has to work around Jason's prayer routine while they are out together. Yet Janelle likes hanging out with Jason and knows that prayer is a big part of his identity.

Here we see that even though Janelle finds it hard to understand Jason's prayer routine but he is tolerant towards it as he accepts Jason's differences. Tolerance means being tolerant of other people's differences and sympathetic to their ideas, cultures, and peculiar behaviors.

Various Tolerances

There are four different forms of Tolerance that one can have. Here is a list of the four categories of Tolerance with illustrations:

1. Community Tolerance

When a group of individuals respects the opinions of others, they are exhibiting community tolerance. The Massachusetts-based Catholic school Notre Dame Academy serves as an illustration of this. They permit adherents of other religions to skip their collective school liturgical activities that involve praying. By educating its kids about various religions, the institution promotes diversity.

2. State Tolerance

State tolerance is when an individual's rights are protected by state-level legislation. The option to refuse vaccinations for religious grounds in a school context is one illustration of this.

In Massachusetts, students must have received a varicella vaccination before enrolling in school. Massachusetts law does allow exceptions for persons who cannot get the required medical vaccinations due to religious beliefs.

3. Individual Tolerance

When someone accepts someone on a personal, intimate level, they demonstrate personal or individual Tolerance. Jimmy and Tommy, two pals with quite varied musical tastes, serve as an illustration of this. Jimmy doesn't really comprehend Tommy's music, but he still lets him play it in the car. He is aware of Tommy's happiness.

4. National Tolerance

Nationwide Tolerance can take the form of laws that are passed at the national level to help a nation's population practice tolerance. In America, President Lyndon Johnson enacted a bill in 1965 that stopped people from being denied the right to vote due to racial profiling at the polls. This bill made racial Tolerance a legally binding principle across the United States by outlawing literacy and poll levies.

Importance of Tolerance

In order to foster a calm environment where everyone respects one another's beliefs and opinions, Tolerance is essential in society. Everyone has their own views and values, which should be respected and upheld; it is important to realize this.

A society that tolerates is joyful, kind, and successful. Tolerance promotes personal growth by improving a person's understanding of the outside world. Also, it introduces children to various viewpoints on a certain subject.

Principles are of great importance, be it ours or someone else's. When faced with difficulty, Tolerance helps one to stray and objectively understand another person's actions, feelings, and other processes.

Tolerance as a Moral Virtue

We can think of Tolerance in a different way if we situate it in the moral realm and acknowledge that it is a moral virtue. Recent philosophers have frequently connected respect, equality, and liberty with Tolerance. People like Michael Dusche, John Rawls, and Michael Walzer, among others, contend that Tolerance should be seen as a positive civic and moral obligation between people, regardless of race, creed, or culture.

In other words, it is a moral duty that calls for respect for the person and others and demands mutual regard and consideration. Conflicting assertions of beliefs, values, and ideas can live between people as long as they adhere to morally acceptable standards, thanks to Tolerance.

Hence, while various marital customs can be justified by morally acceptable standards, sexual abuse of children is wrong and cannot be permitted. If we think about it, tolerance is a necessary element of societal cohesion and a countermeasure against intolerance and prejudice.

Earlier civil libertarians like John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, John Stuart Mill, and others have embraced the notion that Tolerance is a moral obligation. They contend that tolerant individuals cherish the individual, their individuality, and their right to make their own decisions.

Morality and Empathy

Morality and empathy are aspects that are very important and interlinked with Tolerance. According to psychologists, empathy is the primary driver of moral behavior. Others contend that empathy drives prosocial, altruistic, or unselfish behavior.

People with empathy are perceptive to the ideas, emotions, and experiences of others. They are able to put themselves in another person's situation or comprehend what it might be like to get unfair treatment. The fundamental principle of Tolerance is to put oneself in another person's shoes.

According to research, people of all ages, even young children, have a strong sense of justice and empathy towards those different from them regarding race, religion, or culture. Between 70 and 80 percent of the time, they reject bigotry and intolerance and endorse tolerance based on justice and compassion.

Fairness, justice, empathy, tolerance, and respect are common, if not universal, moral principles important for navigating human variation.

Examining tolerance separately could have special ramifications for social and educational policy. More attention should be paid to the connection between morality and tolerance in education that aims to promote a peaceful society.

Tolerance Requires Virtue

It is not a virtue in and of itself to be tolerant. A student's tolerance is not a virtue if he tolerates drinking and driving. Tolerance has no sides. What a student tolerates and how they communicate their tolerance and intolerance determine the value of their tolerance. It calls for personality.

When a pupil makes a racial insult, his issue is not intolerance but kindness and pride (the root of belief in racial superiority). When a student mocks a classmate's viewpoint during a discussion, his issue is not intolerance but a lack of respect. Tolerance is not as much of a problem as self-control when a student spits on another student because he believes his classmate is gay. The moral character traits of compassion, patience, courtesy, humility, love, self-control, and courage are the roots of proper tolerance.

It is important to convey to students that tolerance is a quality of character. If they don't see this, they will mistakenly believe that their indifference, apathy, or even recklessness?expressed in phrases like "whatever" or "who cares?"?shows tolerance. Improperly taught, "tolerance education" might lead to disarming children of their proper convictions.

Standards are needed for Tolerance

In the real world, it is impossible to practice tolerance by "accepting everyone's opinions and conduct." It may sound good during school board meetings and debates in the classroom, but it won't fly in the hallways. The second definition of tolerance in the dictionary is "the permissible departure from a standard," which is a more useful definition. For instance, a building's tolerance for a metal beam during an earthquake may be a question an engineer might pose. How far should it flex before it sustains significant structural harm?

This is how we most frequently define ourselves. We establish a bar for what, in our opinion, is best. We then determine a permitted deviation from that standard. After that, we use what we have learned to evaluate other people's thoughts and deeds. It should be this way. Anything less would be to invite social and moral chaos. The issue for many people is not intolerance but rather a lack of clear standards.

Nonetheless, we create standards for hundreds or even thousands of different categories. For instance, the First Amendment guarantees Americans the freedom to peacefully assemble and petition their representatives. Alternatively, to object to anything, there may be offensive remarks made and even offensive behavior. These behaviors may offend some people, but they are nonetheless acceptable in legal terms. When behavior escalates into violence, and someone else's property is taken or damaged, that is illegal (intolerable).

This meaning of Tolerance is used frequently in educational settings, including classroom participation (students may not have to participate in discussions, but they cannot doze off), dress codes (pants are acceptable, but hot pants are not), hallway behavior, and sexual harassment.

Tolerance as a Gateway to Better Education

The development of a strong sense of justice and fairness, as well as the capacity to identify with those who are different from oneself in terms of race, ethnicity, or nationality, are all components of this education.

This useful concept supports students' moral frameworks established by their religious education and families while being useful for classroom instruction. It teaches students that tolerance includes making judgments, first by establishing a norm and second by determining the boundaries of the acceptable variance, as opposed to teaching them that tolerance is best displayed by a lack of judgment.

Students will struggle with what to tolerate if they are not taught how to clearly set their standards and permitted modifications. They can simply adopt the idiotic stance that they should just accept everything out of exasperation. Even if it does not need much thought, this seems to be acting in a morally superior manner.

Some may express fear that passing judgment may merely exacerbate someone's preconceived notions. This need not be the case for two reasons. Firstly, as we have seen, this is how tolerance functions; therefore, the best course of action is to encourage students to pass their judgment. Secondly, no matter what their standards are, they should act virtuously toward anyone who varies from those standards. Ironically, educators can create more "tolerant" school climates by focusing not on Tolerance but character.

International Day for Tolerance

UNESCO established the International Day for Tolerance as an annual commemoration day in 1995 to raise public awareness of the perils of intolerance. The International Day for Tolerance is celebrated each year on November 16, with a variety of seminars and events. One of them was the 2013 International Cartoon Festival, which was hosted by the "Universal Tolerance Cartoon Festival" in Drammen, Norway.

Questions and Answers

What Else do you Call Tolerance?

Tolerance can be substituted with a variety of other words. Tolerance has a number of synonyms, including acceptance, impartiality, parity, fairness, and equivalency.

What Exactly Does Tolerance Mean and why is it Crucial?

Tolerance is a fair and impartial attitude towards other people and is typically the result of a conscious effort on the part of the person. Tolerance can exist in a person, a group, a state, or a community. It fosters a more harmonious and unified society which makes Tolerance a crucial part of our lives.

Conclusion

Tolerance is a crucial component of our lives. Those who are tolerant value the uniqueness, individuality, and freedom of the individual. Tolerance gives rise to the moral duty to appreciate people for who they are. Additionally, it enables the acceptance of opposing arguments, viewpoints, principles, and concepts as long as they are moral.