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Most regard toleration as an unattractive fallback position of compromise and so tend to overlook it in favor of such active concepts as freedom, equality, and justice. Fotion and Elfstrom argue that toleration offers us the useful possibility of responding to a difficult situation with a degree of flexibility not possible with the dichotomous concepts of good-bad, right-wrong, ethical-unethical, Right-Left.
About the author
Nick Fotion is a Professor of Philosophy, Emory University. He received his B.S. from Northwestern University, his M.A. from State University of Iowa, and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. His Publications include
Ethics (1968),
Moral Situations (1968),
Military Ethics (1986, with Gerard Elfstrom),
Military Ethics: Looking Toward the Future (1991), and an edited volume
Hare and Critics (1988, with Douglas Seanor).
Gerard Elfstrom is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University. He received his B.A. from Cornell College and his M.A. and Ph.D from Emory University. His publications include
Military Ethics (1986, with Nick Fotion),
Ethics for a Shrinking World (1989), and
Moral Issues and Multinational Cooperations.
Summary
This text argues that toleration offers the useful possibility of responding to a difficult situation with a degree of flexibility not possible with the dichotomous concepts of good-bad, right-wrong, ethical-unethical, Right-Left.
