John Locke and Toleration

约翰·洛克与宽容

• 批准号: AH/G00773X/1
• 负责人: Timothy Stanton
• 金额: $ 2.16万
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FG00773X%2F1
• 关键词: John; Locke; Toleration

Toleration is a matter of abiding historical and theoretical interest and of pressing practical importance. The difficulties involved in understanding and in managing culturally and religiously diverse societies make it so. The recent furore surrounding Dr. Rowan Williams' passing remarks about Sharia Law only testifies to the delicacy of these difficulties and the confusions of thought they evoke. The role of theory is not to resolve those difficulties but to clear them of misunderstandings which make their solution impossible; because these misunderstandings have developed over time, in step with the difficulties, theory must be supplemented by history. History shows that the difficulties confronting diverse modern societies - of religiously-inspired dissatisfaction, dissent and mistrust - are strikingly similar to, and in some respects owe their special character to, the difficulties that confronted the divided societies of 17th century Europe. If we wish to understand the difficulties of the present, we must re-learn what it means to think about the problems of religious toleration and dissent with the combination of imagination, breadth and seriousness that characterised the greatest minds of the 17th century. This is the central intellectual objective of my proposed research project, 'John Locke and toleration'.Locke's reputation at the present time is in some respects a curious one. On the one hand he is by common consent acknowledged to have exercised a dominant influence on the development of the idea of toleration in subsequent liberal thought. Thus he is regarded as a key figure in the history of the idea of toleration and of liberalism generally, because he put into currency certain persuasive conceptions which contributed centrally to the emergence and spread of liberal ways of thinking about toleration which continue to ramify in the present. On the other hand, it is noticeable that detailed consideration of his work in its own terms has not figured prominently in recent writing about toleration. In works of political philosophy his name is often invoked but his work, if it is read at any length, is interpreted with an eye to present-day categories and with the matching tendency to silently edit those parts of it which do not accord so well with present-day interests and assumptions. Emphasis is laid on particular passages in Locke's texts but his argument as a whole, and the assumptions that supported it, recede from view. In historical works his views are explained and explicated with reference to the different schools of thought which allegedly exerted an influence upon his thinking. Either way, the special character of Locke's arguments, the comprehensiveness and particularity of his vision, and the originality of his position is systematically obscured.The project therefore has three interpretative aims: to identify the fundamental points in Locke's mature position about toleration, to distinguish this position from the positions formulated by Locke's predecessors, contemporaries and opponents and to show how Locke's position connects to wider views of politics, God and the human understanding. The pursuit of these aims will generate three thematically connected publications, (i) a critical edition of an as yet unpublished Locke manuscript on toleration (ii) an article in a refereed journal about the context and composition of this manuscript and (iii) a commissioned chapter on the development of Locke's position about toleration. Together, these aims embrace a single purpose: to understand Locke's idea of toleration in its own terms and in doing so to shed new light on the possibilities for thinking about toleration today.

宽容是一个具有持久的历史和理论意义以及迫切的实践重要性的问题。理解和管理文化和宗教多样化的社会所涉及的困难使其成为现实。最近围绕着罗文·威廉姆斯博士关于伊斯兰教法的言论而引起的骚动，只是证明了这些困难的微妙之处，以及它们所引起的思想混乱。理论的作用不是要解决这些困难，而是要清除那些使这些困难无法解决的误解；由于这些误解是随着时间的推移而发展起来的，与困难同步，理论必须以历史为补充。历史表明，各种各样的现代社会所面临的困难——由宗教引起的不满、异议和不信任——与17世纪欧洲分裂社会所面临的困难惊人地相似，而且在某些方面具有其特殊性。如果我们想要理解当前的困难，我们必须重新学习用17世纪最伟大的思想家所特有的想象力、广度和严肃性来思考宗教宽容和不同意见的问题意味着什么。这是我提出的研究项目“约翰·洛克与宽容”的核心思想目标。洛克现在的名声在某些方面是很奇怪的。一方面，人们普遍认为他对后来自由主义思想中宽容思想的发展产生了主导影响。因此，他被认为是宽容思想和自由主义历史上的关键人物，因为他将一些有说服力的概念付诸实践，这些概念对宽容思想的自由主义方式的出现和传播做出了重要贡献，这些宽容思想在今天仍在继续蔓延。另一方面，值得注意的是，在最近关于宽容的写作中，对他的作品的详细考虑并没有占据突出地位。在政治哲学著作中，他的名字经常被引用，但他的作品，如果读到任何长度，都是用当今的范畴来解释的，并且有一种相匹配的倾向，即默默地编辑那些不太符合当今利益和假设的部分。重点放在洛克文本中的特定段落，但他的论点作为一个整体，以及支持它的假设，从视野中消失了。在历史著作中，他的观点是根据不同的思想流派来解释和阐明的，据说这些学派对他的思想产生了影响。不管怎样，洛克论证的特殊性，他观点的全面性和特殊性，以及他立场的独创性都被系统地模糊了。因此，这个项目有三个解释的目的：确定洛克关于宽容的成熟立场的基本观点，将这个立场与洛克的前辈，同时代人和反对者所阐述的立场区分开来，并展示洛克的立场如何与更广泛的政治，上帝和人类理解的观点联系起来。对这些目标的追求将产生三个主题相关的出版物，(i)一篇尚未发表的洛克关于宽容的手稿的批判版；（ii）一篇关于该手稿的背景和组成的文章；（iii）一篇关于洛克关于宽容立场发展的委托章节。总之，这些目标包含了一个单一的目的：理解洛克关于宽容的观点，并以此为今天思考宽容的可能性提供新的视角。

项目成果

The International Encyclopedia of Ethics

国际伦理百科全书

• DOI: 10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee722
• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Brighouse H

Reply to Tate

回复 泰特

• DOI: 10.1177/0090591711432842
• 发表时间: 2012
• 期刊: Political Theory
• 影响因子: 1.4
• 作者: Stanton T

The context and composition of Locke's Defence of Nonconformity

洛克的不合格辩护的背景和构成

• 作者: Timothy Stanton (Author)

Locke and Hobbes on Authority and Freedom

洛克与霍布斯论权威与自由

• 作者: Timothy Stanton (Author)

Authority and Freedom in the Interpretation of Locke's Political Theory

洛克政治理论阐释中的权威与自由

• DOI: 10.1177/0090591710386571
• 发表时间: 2010
• 期刊: Political Theory
• 影响因子: 1.4
• 作者: Stanton T