__________________________________________________
Call for Papers "Toleration and Respect: Concepts, Justifications and Applications" Workshop in Political Theory Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester (United Kingdom) 1-3 September 2010 __________________________________________________ Conveners: Emanuela Ceva (Institute for Advanced Study, University of Pavia) Sune Laegaard (Roskilde University) Federico Zuolo (Institute for Advanced Study, University of Pavia) Discussions of the ideas of toleration and respect have animated vivid and ongoing debates in political and moral philosophy during the last decades. The formulations given to the idea of toleration have come to range from the negative appeal to non-interference to the positive recognition of difference. In a similar vein, the idea of respect has been object of some serious reformulation building on the works of neo-Kantians up to the most recent applications to issues of cultural diversity and religious liberty. However, the sophistication of the dicussions revolving around each of the two ideas has not been accompanied by a clarification of their reciprocal conceptual and normative relations, thus leading, in fact, to a blurring of the lines between them. On this backdrop, the workshop will offer an occasion to engage in debates leading to a more systematic exploration of the intricate relations, conceptual and practical, between the two ideas. In particular, papers could address one (or more) of the following issues: - Concepts of toleration and respect: Papers should aim at clarifying what distinguishes relations of toleration from relations of respect, both formally and substantially. Possible questions: Are toleration and respect just different points on a continuum or do they characterize qualitatively different kinds of relations? What might be the subjects and objects of toleration and respect? Specifically, does respect only qualify relations between persons, or are cultures appropriate objects of respect? - Justifications of toleration and respect: Papers will address issues of justification from a twofold perspective considering toleration and respect both (i) as objects of justification and (ii) as bases for the justification of certain types of attitudes, institutional arrangements or policies. Possible questions: What properties possessed by persons, cultures or groups require respectful treatment or toleration? Is respect a possible justification for toleration or are the two mutually exclusive notions? In what ways toleration and/or respect may be viewed as the justifying ideals of liberal democratic arrangements? What are the implications of the endorsement of either notion in terms of the kind of treatment to which citizens are entitled? - Applications: Papers will investigate the ways in which different notions of toleration and respect may be applied to social and political issues in contemporary democracies, with a special emphasis on the relations between majorities and minorities. Possible questions: What notions of toleration and respect are more apt to capture the specificities of the relations between majorities and minorities in a democracy? And those between minorities? What are the expected consequences of the coexistence of diverse minority groups in terms of social cohesion? Would it be helpful to couch those issues in terms of either toleration or respect? If you would like to present a paper at this workshop, please send a 500-word abstract (or a full paper) to <[email protected]> by May 1, 2010. We welcome contributions from the fields of ethics, political philosophy, history of political thought and philosophy of law. The conveners acknowledge the supprto of the European Commission 7th Framework Programme, Project RESPECT (244549). __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
