The history of the term Tolerance since ancient time to modern life

     МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ГИМНАЗИЯ №39 «КЛАССИЧЕСКАЯ»

ДОКЛАД НА ТЕМУ:

The history of the

term Tolerance

 since ancient time to modern life

                                                                                                   доклад выполнен  

                                                                                            ученицами 10Б класса

                                                                                                МБУ гимназии №39

                                                                                                        «Классическая»

                                                                                               Кузнецовой Ксенией

                                                                                            и Салабаевой Ксенией

Г.О.ТОЛЬЯТТИ, 2013

       The ideas of tolerance in the world culture has a rich and interesting history. Even in ancient religious and mythical texts we can find the term "tolerance", but concerning mostly religious aspects such as the idea of being patient . So the Bible says “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” [Colossians 3:12-13]

          In ancient Rome, the verb “tolerare”  was widely used also in the meaning

of "patience." Marcus Tullius Cicero used the word “tolerantia” in relation to the spirit of the wise man, who is tolerant to human affairs. Protagoras of Abdera said that  the ideal of absolute indifference is the ideal of tolerance. And the philosophy of Socrates, "who knows that he knows nothing " is accepted  by some researchers as the foundation of tolerance.

           In the Middle Ages the problem of tolerance is treated as a tolerant attitude to heretics . A good representative who spread this idea was Thomas Aquinas. And the semantic meaning of his concept was: if you can not deal with the heretics, just  avoid the conflict.

          The next chapter in the history of tolerance was the Cromwell period of English history of the 17th century . John Saltmarsh, one of the prominent advocates of tolerance in the era of Cromwell , said: "Your arguments are as dark to me as my reasons are for you until the Lord opens our eyes ." In general tolerance has been established both in England and in America  not  as an ideal principle but as a necessity - when the monolithic unity of the society was destroyed, it turned out that the society will be more peaceful without the idea of religious unity. So we can identify that  the idea of  religious tolerance initiated all other freedoms that have been achieved in a Western society.

            In the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, the only outstanding representative of tolerance was Voltaire. He said: "I ​​do not agree with what you say, but I will sacrifice myself to defend your right to express your opinion" and this aphorism expresses the classical theory of tolerance.

             The philosophical foundation of “tolerance” we can also find in the works of   Immanuel Kant, who describes the principle of tolerance as “the Great moral law”.

             Nowadays we can notice the transition of the principle of tolerance. So, Karl Popper, one of the most outstanding philosophers of the 20th century, considered  “tolerance” as the most important principle of humanistic ethics, but he carefully formulated this principle as follows: «Tolerance to those who are tolerant  and do not popularize “intolerance”». So we can see that in modern society “tolerance” gets the limits,  preventing tolerance to radical anti-social groups  which are due  to preserve the democratic system as a whole.                

               In Russian linguistics  the words “терпимость” and “толерантность” are of  similar meaning.  In the dictionary by Vladimir Dahl the word  “терпимость” indicate the quality or the ability to tolerate something or someone «только по милосердию, снисхождению». Sergey Ozhegov gives this defenition: «Умение без вражды, терпеливо относиться к чужому мнению, взглядам, поведению». Most etymological dictionaries denote the noun "tolerance" or the verb "tolerate" as: passive acceptance of the surrounding reality, non-resistance to it. In many European languages the word comes from the Latin tolerantia – терпение (English - tolerance, toleration, German - Toleranz, French -  tolerance) and this word indicates the readiness to provide another person to implenent the freedom of thought and action.

            To sum up we came to the conclusion that at the beginning of the mankind  “tolerance” was  identified with the concept of patience. Buy nowadays it gets a brighter and more active direction.  Tolerance is not a passive, submissive patience, but an active moral position and psychological readiness for tolerance in the name of mutual understanding and positive interaction with people of  different cultural , ethnic, religious or social environment. It is the ability to accept the situation, thus preventing conflicts.

Использованная литература:

1. Толерантность и культура межнационального общения: Учебно-методическое пособие (для студентов высших учебных заведений). – Краснодар: Просвещение-Юг, 2009. – 307 с.

2. Толерантность в современном обществе: опыт междисциплинарных исследований: сборник научных статей / под научн. ред. М.В. Новикова, Н.В. Нижегородцевой. – Ярославль: Изд-во ЯГПУ, 2011. - 357 с.

3. http://www.mgimo.ru/news/university/document182257.phtml