A Tolerant Utopia

Abstract

The main thesis of this chapter is that for a society to perfectly instantiate political respect, it must, given the diversity of views and lifestyles that exist, perfectly instantiate political toleration. Thus, a respectful utopia is a utopia of toleration. Moreover, I argue that a tolerant utopia is dynamically libertarian; its institutional design favors changes that eventually lead to a libertarian society. Importantly, it does not mean that the citizens nor the state are committed to libertarianism. To argue for this main thesis, I discuss the predominant “high liberal” conception of political respect and the resulting utopia. I show that it rests on a flawed epistemology that renders the high liberal Utopia impossible in principle. The Utopia of toleration that I propose is an improvement over the former’s failure.