The author argues that a correct approach to the question of tolerance cannot ignore the increasing importance of the religious factor on the political, cultural and social scene of the last few years. The common European model of the relationship between the State and religious faiths that may be called the Law possesses some margins of elasticity. These margins of elasticity may be defined as tolerance. A mechanism of selection allows the law to welcome those new requests for (...) liberty that do not undermine the fundamental features of the model. (shrink)

In this paper, I intend to appropriate the explanatory power of some of Habermas' recent ideas (such as complementary learning processes, modernization of faith, tolerance, and non-violence) for the purpose of examining the current political situation in Iran. I would like to argue that the recent history of Iran has offered an occasion for a development away from a dogmatic religious consciousness and toward a more tolerant one. I submit that these opposing modes of thought are, respectively, represented by (...) the hardliners in power and the reformists in opposition. The current impasse, I argue, is the result of an asymmetrical learning process, where the conservative camp has not evolved along with the reformers. I submit that the way out of the impasse is a fully fledged non-violent movement of civil disobedience by the opposition. The politics of non-violence engagement can be realized by fostering a culture of tolerance as the acceptance of reasonable disagreements and the rejection of violent means in politics. I argue that such a movement has begun to emerge after the June 12 2009 presidential election in the form of the Green Hope Movement. (shrink)

The emerging of new virtual studying cyberspace significantly broadens the scope of pedagogical techniques and created new opportunities for usage of manipulative techniques in educational practice Manipulation success factor is mostly depends on the tolerance level of a student-addressee when recognizing manipulation intrusion. There are three main moods of student-addressee’s behaviour in manipulation situation: active anti-manipulation defence, related to building effective contramanipulation; passive anti-manipulation defence, including applying different methods of operational and behavioural blocking ofmanipulator’s actions; and high level of (...) tolerance, which may occur in ability patiently accept negative influence from teacher-manipulator without decay in his/her adaptive abilities. Each of these moods has its advantages and disadvantages. It depends mainly on dominant value-adding positioning of each particularmanipulation pedagogical technique. If it can be described as has antihuman approach with the elements of pressure and humiliation of student’s personality, then this technique can not be applied. Applying of manipulation techniques is only possible if it allows building good and comfortable relationship between teacher and student, decreasing the conflict level of this relationship. (shrink)

This article presents the argument that our understanding of the nature of the relationship between modern constitutionalism and religious difference has suffered with the success of the story of legal tolerance and multiculturalism. Taking up the Canadian case, in which the conventional narrative of legal multiculturalism has such purchase, this piece asks how the interaction of law and religion – and, in particular, the practices of legal tolerance – would look if we sought in earnest to understand law (...) as a component, rather than a curator, of cultural diversity in modern liberal societies. Understanding the law as itself a cultural form forces us to think about the interaction of law and religion as an instance of cross-cultural encounter. Drawing from theoretical accounts of cross-cultural encounter and philosophical literature about the nature of toleration, and paying close attention to the shape of Canadian constitutional doctrine on religious freedom , this paper suggests that legal toleration is far less accommodative and far more assimilative than the conventional narrative lets on. Influential alternative theoretical accounts ultimately reproduce this dynamic because they similarly obscure the role of culture on both sides of the encounter of law and religion. Indeed, owing to the particular features of the culture of law’s rule, even the more thickly cultural “solutions” proposed in dialogic theory ultimately fail. In the end, this article exposes the very real cultural limits of legal tolerance. (shrink)

An important issue in the article is the historical and modern approach to the problem of social tolerance, tracking the historical stages of its development and the current situation. Here it is necessary to distinguish between social tolerance as a phenomenon and a concept. Tolerance, acceptance of diversity – this is the principle of coexistence in intergroup, intercultural relations. Social tolerance ensures stable peaceful interaction of people, public associations and subjects with common and specific views, beliefs (...) and cultures. Although social “tolerance” is a word of Latin origin and is translated into our language as “endurance”, its translation in this sense does not fully cover the content of the concept. Because the word “endurance” has a negative connotation and is essentially a must. This is why tolerance cannot be equated with endurance. The fact that the term “social tolerance” is translated into different languages according to its meaning, for example, “restraint”, “patience”, in our opinion, is a more accurate translation and more adequately reflects its content. In general, the peculiarity of tolerance in intercultural relations is that it acts as a characteristic of a person and a form of self-reflection. Tolerance is a way of dialogue in the presence of foreign, other cultures. The culture of tolerance, which is an integral part of the general culture of the individual, is a philosophical phenomenon and has a broader meaning than the concept of “restraint”. (shrink)

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This article explores the trends in the implementation of Islamic moderation through aqidah and sharia in Singkawang, as it is considered the most tolerant city in Indonesia based on a research report published in 2019. Using grounded research analysis, the authors found three structured patterns: implementation strategies, implementation processes and implementation patterns. This study shows that these strategies and methods, implemented through a flexible, straightforward and easy-to-implement model are relevant to the fundamental values of Islamic education and offer a means (...) of forming a complete and comprehensive network. These implementation patterns encourage religious communities to develop and maintain healthy social relationships. Hopefully, such implementation patterns can be imitated and modified by policyholders to realise Islam rahmatanlil ‘alamin [as a blessing for all].Contribution: Scholars in the fields may benefit from the findings of the research as it provides a new perspective of the Islamic educational moderation theory grounded from the field research. It argues that the practice of community tolerance, especially by the Muslims, has been based on the good understanding of the theology of Islamic education moderation. Education matters in the process of community peace building and in generating tolerance through the implementation of Islamic moderation values. (shrink)

혐오감정은 싫어하고 미워하는 여러 대상들에 대해 말과 행위로표현되는 부정적이고 파괴적인 집단 감정이다. 여성, 성소수자, 외국인 노동자, 탈북 주민 그리고 난민 등에 대한 혐오 감정의 만연은 다문화 사회에 들어선 우리 사회에 위험 신호로 받아들여지고있다. 해결이 요구되는 시급한 현실문제이다. 2절에서는 혐오감정을 홉스, 데카르트, 스피노자 그리고 흄 같은근대철학자들이 어떻게 이해하고 있는가를 설명하고 있다. 3절에서는 혐오감정의 두 가지 기능(긍정적 기능과 부정적 기능)을 혐오감정의 두 가지 기원과 관련해서 설명하고 있다. 혐오감정의 기원에 관해서는 마사 누스바움의 이론, 즉 원초적 혐오와 투사적 혐오로 구분하여 소개하고 있다. 4절에서는 혐오감정의 (...) 세 가지 특징을 설명하고 있다. 5절에서는 난민 문제를 둘러싼 복잡한 구조적 문제를 다루고 있다. 난민문제에는 한국 사회의 경제적 불확실성이 자리잡고 있으며, 특히청년 세대들에게서 난민에 대해 부정적 시각을 보이는 배경으로이해되고 있다. 또 난민 문제에는 종교적, 문화적 갈등이 잠복되어있는 복잡성이 놓여 있다. 이슬람 포비아와 인종차별주의가 혐오감정의 배후에 놓여 있다. 6절에서는 난민문제를 해결하기 위한 대안으로 관용의 윤리를제안하고 있다. 관용은 자유주의 덕목이며, 유가의 덕목인 서의 실천과 동일하다. 관용의 실천을 통해 이방인(난민)들을 바라보는 시각의 변경이 복잡하게 얽혀 있는 난민 문제를 해결할 수 있는 하나의 실마리가 될 것이다. (shrink)

Rudolf Carnap’s principle of tolerance states that there is no need to justify the adoption of a logic by philosophical means. Carnap uses the freedom provided by this principle in his philosophy of mathematics: he wants to capture the idea that mathematical truth is a matter of linguistic rules by relying on a strong metalanguage with infinitary inference rules. In this paper, I give a new interpretation of an argument by E. W. Beth, which shows that the principle of (...) tolerance does not suffice to remove all obstacles to the employment of infinitary rules. (shrink)

Discussions about the evolution of human social cognition usually portray the social environment of early hominins as highly hierarchical and violent. In this evolutionary narrative, our propensity for violence was overcome in our lineage by an increase in our intellectual capacities. However, I will argue in this article that we are at least equally justified in believing that our early hominin ancestors were less aggressive and hierarchical than is suggested in these models. This view is consistent with the available comparative (...) and palaeoanthropological evidence. I will show that this alternative model not only does not support long-held views of human origins, but also has important consequences for debates about the evolution of our capacity for normative guidance. 1Introduction 2Philosophical Motivation 3The Puzzle of Hominin Evolution 4The Mosaic Hypothesis 5Evidence for the Model 6Palaeoanthropological Support 7Philosophical Consequences. (shrink)

This paper reports the results of a survey of ethical attitudes, values, and propensities in public sector employees in Australia. It was expected that demographic variables, personal values, and contextual variables at the individual level, and group- and organisational-level values would predict use of formal codes of ethics and ethical tolerance (tolerance of unethical behaviour). Useable data were received from 500 respondents selected at random across public sector organisations in a single Australian state. Results supported the study hypotheses, (...) but indicated that different mechanisms underlie each of the criterion variables. Use of ethical codes was determined primarily on the basis of a perception that others use the code, while ethical tolerance was determined by personal values. At an applied level, the research highlights the need for orgasnizations to establish a critical mass of code users, so that this operates as a normative influence on others in the organization. (shrink)

Religious moderation is a crucial issue, along with religious and cultural values that develop in society. Religious moderation’s success will significantly determine millennial Muslim youth’s tolerant attitudes, mediated by intellectual humility. This study aimed to identify and design a model of religious moderation on tolerance by mediating intellectual humility. The research used mixed methods; data analysis used NVivo 12 Plus (software by QSR International), to compile variable nominations; and Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation (PLS-SEM) creates research models. There (...) were 350 Indonesian youth informants in the study, which used interviews and focus group discussions. The results showed that religious moderation in youth, including national commitment, antiviolence and acceptance of local culture, can strengthen tolerance, mediated by intellectual humility. The tolerant attitude shows high and stable data and confirms the strengthening of religious moderation in young people. From the identification, a model of religious moderation in youth was designed and revised, and the results have met all the requirements for modelling so that it can be continued for testing.Contribution: This research provides essential assistance in implementing religious moderation for young people, which is currently the most prevalent issue in Indonesia. The world needs a moderate religious attitude to become a middle ground for various religious and cultural differences among people globally. (shrink)

This study aimed to analyze the mediating effect of tolerance of uncertainty and trait anxiety on future self-continuity and intention to use Internet wealth management systems. A questionnaire survey was distributed online and a total of 388 participants completed questionnaire, The questionnaire included the following scales: Chinese version of the FSC, Intention to Use the Internet Wealth Management, TU, and TA. Pearson correlation was used to investigate the correlation coefficient between variables while the sequential regression method was used to (...) analyze relationship between variables. To analyze the collected data, the SPSS 26.0 was used. A two-step procedure was applied to analyze the mediation effect. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the measurement model. Afterward, the Maximum Likelihood method was used for path analysis, and the Bias-corrected Bootstrap method was used to investigate determine the estimated value and confidence interval of the mediating effect. To analyze the mediation effect, the Mplus 7.0 was used. The results showed that FSC positively predicted individuals’ Internet wealth management systems. Furthermore, TU and TA played complete serial multiple mediating roles between FSC and IUIWM. The role of TA and TU have negative impact on intention to use. This study provides a theoretical basis in personality psychology that Internet financial product suppliers can use to improve the attractiveness of their products. Product managers can subdivide users according to these personality traits to provide customized products. (shrink)

Islamic moderateness is said to be one of the key factors that contribute to the promotion of peace in Muslim societies. We present an empirical study conducted in Indonesia ( N = 299) that assessed Islamic political moderateness and examined its role in explaining Muslims’ tolerance towards non-Muslims, as well as the first group’s support for making reconciliation with the latter group. We found as hypothesised that Islamic political moderateness was a positive predictor of outgroup tolerance, because of (...) the role it had in positively predicting the sense of national identity as a higher order identity vis-à-vis Islamic identity (i.e. higher order nested identity). Outgroup tolerance positively predicted and, in turn, fully mediated the positive association between Islamic political moderateness and Muslims’ reconciliatory tendencies, including feelings of collective guilt and shame, intergroup trust and perspective-taking, intergroup cooperation, willingness to apologise, as well as support for intergroup empowerment and reparative actions. These findings suggest the benefit of Islamic political moderateness to drive Muslims to appreciate the existence of non-Muslims. We discuss these empirical findings in terms of theoretical implications, research limitations and practical implications. (shrink)

In his most recent work, John Rawls argues that political theory must recognize and accomodate the ‘fact of pluralism’, including the fact of religious diversity. He believes that the liberal commitment to individual rights provides the only feasible model for accomodating religious pluralism. In the paper, I discuss a second form of tolerance, based on group rights rather than individual rights. Drawing on historical examples, I argue that this is is also a feasible model for accomodating religious pluralism. While (...) both models ensure tolerance between groups, only the former tolerates individual dissent within groups. To defend the individual rights model, therefore, liberals must appeal not only to the fact of social pluralism, but also to the value of individual autonomy. This may require abandoning Rawls’s belief that liberalism can and should be defended on purely ‘political’, rather than ‘comprehensive’ grounds. (shrink)

To enable microbial colonisation of the gut mucosa, the intestinal immune system must not only react to danger signals but also recognize cues that indicate safety. Safety recognition, paradoxically, is mediated by the same environmental sensors that are involved in signalling danger. Indeed, in addition to their well established role in inducing inflammation in response to stress signals, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and a variety of metabolic sensors also promote gut-microbiota symbiosis by responding to "microbial symbiosis factors", "resolution-associated molecular patterns", (...) markers of energy extraction and other signals indicating the absence of pathogenic infection and tissue damage. Here we focus on how the paradoxical role of immune receptors and other environmental sensors define the microbiota signature of the individual. (shrink)

Some recent state formations are offshoots of religious societies where the elite clothed the state with religious apparel. Diverse communities and their beliefs compel many modern nations to adopt a secular state ideology in order to avoid religious domination of time. Constitutionally, Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, while the state has maintained peaceful co-existence among its religious groups with an emphasis on religious tolerance and improved wealth distribution. Conversely, Nigeria, constitutionally a secular state with shared populations of (...) mainly Christians and Muslims, is embroiled in yearly religious conflicts. This article aims to show how Nigeria’s secular state status is engulfed in religious bigotry due to institutional inadequacies. This is unlike Malaysia’s state-centered influence on religion, yet its wealth distribution policy makes room for peaceful co-existence in its polity as against more severe challenges of corruption in Nigeria. The paper argues that leadership and institutional failures have exacerbated religious conflicts in Nigeria and hence the state totters in the face of tension. A theoretical debate unveils our proposition on religious practices in both countries. We rely on secondary data and empirical evidence in unveiling issues and conclude with modest recommendations. (shrink)

In this essay we discuss an ethical dilemma that recently arose in our institution, involving healthcare workers who lamented the requirement to shave their facial hair as a condition to care for COVID-19 patients. The essay represents a genuine attempt to grapple with the dilemma sensibly and vigorously. We first provide a brief introduction, focusing on the tension between religious tolerance and the institutional obligation to optimize patient care and public health in the age of COVID-19. We then discuss (...) the complex relationship between facial hair and cultural as well as religious factors throughout history. Next, we make a case, based on several principles in Islam jurisprudence, that Muslim healthcare professionals in our institution should be expected to shave their facial hair so they could care for COVID patients. We end with considering two alternative solutions that were offered in the literature. (shrink)

In the Netherlands, the traditional and famous ‘culture of tolerance’ in the past few years surprisingly became associated with the laxity, half-heartedness, even negligence and indifference with regard to serious problems in a multi-ethnic society. For the time being, a polemical use of the term dominates: tolerance as an aspect of our western ‘superiority’ against barbaric fundamentalism. To regain some grip on the – at least in the Netherlands – apparently ‘hollow’, even politically and morally dubious concept of (...) tolerance, the author returns to the genealogical ‘founding forge’ of the term, the civil war fought in the name of religion in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. He demonstrates that tolerance was a key-category in a tiring, centuries-old process during which a ‘Gordian knot’ – the congruence of political power and religious faith – was being abandoned. The historical case-study of the dissident preacher John Bunyan and the early Quakers in seventeenth-century England shows, that during the Age of religious Discord political, social and religious themes are inseparably intertwined, not only from the point of view of the defenders of the status quo, but also from the standpoint of the religious dissidents and their ‘illegal’ preaching. In the intellectual history one can witness the birth of the early-modern concept of a minimal, political concept of tolerance. In a negative sense, this was a departure from attempts to uphold or restore the unity of ‘true faith’ by political coercion. In a positive sense it implied the sufferance of dissident faith and religious practices by a political power ‘in order to prevent the worse from happening’. In this process, political power became more and more an autonomous institution, above society. This minimal, political concept of tolerance has been surpassed by the state-sanctioned, juridical freedom of religion. This implies the democratic disjunction of truth and justice, that is, the recognition of an equal, reciprocal right of everyone to live and articulate his or her own truth. This legislation must be supported by a civic and social culture in which tolerance as an ethical virtue is being practiced and cherished. The most exacting form of tolerance is an attitude which tries to overcome the democratic disjunction of truth and justice, in the direction of an ‘oikoumene of religions’ or a ‘fusion of horizons’. But this subtle attitude can easily slip into an ‘idolatry of difference’ and a laissez faire-tolerance, as seemed to have happened in the Netherlands. In the final parts of this introductory essay the author presents the four articles in this thematic edition of Bijdragen: studies on Cusanus, Spinoza and Leibniz regarding tolerance, and an essay on the problems of dealing with alterity. The author concludes with the contemporary dilemma of tolerance. Should the future form of tolerance be based on universalism accompanied with the political neutralization and privatization of religion, nation, culture? Or should tolerance in a globalizing world be fed from particular traditions and sources? (shrink)

Mahatma Gandhi was one of those rare human beings who was simultaneously a theoretician and practitioner of tolerance. Gandhi was possessed of an inner conviction that tolerance was not only one of the key words of his own century but of centuries still to come. It is in this sense that his ideas on non-violence and tolerance transcend the context of India itself, even though these ideas were initially conceived in relation to India's independence and future. Nevertheless, (...) in spite of what may seem obvious, it is no mere truism to state that Gandhi would not have been Gandhi had he not been born Indian. We say this in order to underscore that Gandhi's concept of tolerance was rooted in Indian culture. (shrink)

Discussions about the evolution of human social cognition usually portray the social environment of early hominins as highly hierarchical and violent. In this evolutionary narrative, our propensity for violence was overcome in our lineage by an increase in our intellectual capacities. However, I will argue in this article that we are at least equally justified in believing that our early hominin ancestors were less aggressive and hierarchical than is suggested in these models. This view is consistent with the available comparative (...) and palaeoanthropological evidence. I will show that this alternative model not only does not support long-held views of human origins, but also has important consequences for debates about the evolution of our capacity for normative guidance. _1_ Introduction _2_ Philosophical Motivation _3_ The Puzzle of Hominin Evolution _4_ The Mosaic Hypothesis _5_ Evidence for the Model _6_ Palaeoanthropological Support _7_ Philosophical Consequences. (shrink)

The history of the idea of tolerance is marked by a rift between its original meaning and its modern one. At first tolerance was understood as the effort made to put up with certain reprehensible acts or lapses with regard to society's values, since rules can never be respected at all times without life becoming unbearable. Conceived originally as a discretion on the part of authority, it progressively acquired the meaning of a “right to differ.” “The idea that (...) a free space must obligatorily be assured to each member of the community,” writes Ghislain Waterlot, “is a relatively new idea that is fundamentally very modern.”. (shrink)

Cultural diversity is an increasingly important phenomenon that affects not only social and political harmony but also the cohesion and efficiency of organisations. The problems that firms have with regard to managing cultural diversity have been abundantly studied in recent decades from the perspectives of management theory and moral philosophy, but there are still open questions that require deeper reflection and broader empirical analysis. Managing cultural diversity in organisations is of prime importance because it involves harmonising different values, beliefs, credos (...) and customs, and, in essence, human identity. Taking into consideration these cultural differences and harmonising them is a human rights issue and a central dimension of corporate social responsibility. Here we are going to focus on theoretical reflection about the ideas that lie behind corporate policies and organisational initiatives that deal with cultural diversity. The aim of our paper is twofold: to present a critical reflection on the ideology of tolerance, and propose an ideology of respect for dealing with cultural diversity. We start by presenting the plurality of interpretations of the concept of ideology, and justify its applicability to the field of cultural diversity. We then reflect on the differences between “tolerance” and “respect” and identifying the practical implications for managing cultural diversity. And finally, we propose a culture of respect that goes beyond tolerance and complements and legitimizes the “business case” perspective for managing cultural diversity in companies. The ideology of respect is based on the Kantian tradition and on the discursive approach where rational dialogue and argumentation are considered the legitimate process for creating a culture of intercultural respect. From this theoretical discussion of the key philosophical concepts we can suggest some general principles for managing cultural diversity in organisations. (shrink)

In the Chinese society, border agents in channel transactions will choose different opportunistic behavior response strategies to the tolerance of other members based on the relationship between the two parties. Based on 206 valid questionnaires collected, structural equation model and regression analysis were used to investigate the influence of opportunistic behavior tolerance on response strategy selection. The results show that the channel boundary personnel's tolerance to opportunistic behavior negatively influences their choice of a positive response strategy and (...) positively influences their choice of a negative response strategy. Among the mediating effects of contract formulation, transaction terms have a positive effect on the choice of negative response strategies based on the work and individual opportunistic behavior tolerance and have no mediating effect on the choice of positive response strategies; the contingency clause has no mediating effect on the choice of positive response strategies based on individual opportunistic behavior tolerance. (shrink)

Tradition is classical. Surely, nothing could be more pleonastic than that? The logical tradition, certainly, was squarely classical from Bolzano to Carnap, with, say, Frege, Moore, Russell and the Wittgenstein of the Tractatus as intermediaries. Propositions are construed as being in themselves true-or-false. Indeed, in this tradition, a declarative sentence S expresses a proposition by being true-or-false. So the meaningfulness of a sentence consists in its being true-or-false. But S is true-orfalse, or so they say, only when S is true, (...) or when S is false. On the classical account the presumption of bivalence is built into the very notion of meaningfulness: there is no difference between asserting that A is a proposition and asserting that A is true-or-false. The matter came to the fore in the foundations of set theory. In his first attempt at giving an application criterion for sets Cantor noted: Eine Mannigfaltigkeit von Elementen, die irgendwelcher Begriffssphäre angehören, nenne ich wohldefiniert, wenn auf Grund ihrer Definition und infolge des logischen Prinzips vom ausgeschlossenen Dritten es als intern bestimmt angesehen werden muss, sowohl ob irgendein derselben Begriffssphäre angehöriges Objekt zu der gedachten Mannigfaltigkeit gehört oder nicht, wie auch, ob zwei zur Mannigfaltigkeit gehörige Objekte trotz formaler Unterschiede in der Art des Gegebenseins einander gleich sind oder nicht. (shrink)

The beginning of the new realm in philosophical research, which is the oral history of phiosophy, is followed by the consequential set of serious ethical issues. The purpose of this article is to identify moral orientations a historian of philosophy can rely on in oral communication with respondents. The starting point of the analysis is the ethical standards of interviews developed by the Oral History Society. An example to test these standards based on the principle of maximum tolerance is (...) the case of Martin Heidegger. Considering the ambiguity of some outstanding philosophical figures, the main task of the article is to find the line between propagation of the dangerous views of the philosopher and objective philosophical analysis. As a guide to the ethics of interviewing philosophers, I propose the approach suggested by Alain Badieu and Barbara Cassin regarding Heidegger. They claim that a great philosopher can simultaneously be a Nazi and an anti-Semite. I outlined the general feature of interaction with ambiguous personalities in a philosophical interview: (1) the interviewer should not make extreme judgments in advance; (2) We have no right to remove some ambiguous philosophers from discourse, and communication with them is a personal matter of the interviewer. But philosophical community should produce the criteria for exact distinction between the sphere of ethically unacceptable and realm of uncertain. (shrink)

This paper revisits Moses Mendelssohn’s political theology through his early aesthetic writings, and in conjunction with his later writing on politics and religion, unearths a model of religious toleration that can respond to many contemporary critiques of tolerance, especially those which draw from Jacobi and Schmitt’s decisionist political theology.

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 7, Page 53-54, July 2012.

The urgency of the chosen topic is due to the situation of multiculturalism and polyconfessionality of the modern world, in which the numerical superiority among the religious population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, which has more than 1 billion followers. Therefore, being the most numerous among religions, the Roman Catholic Church has a significant influence on the religious situation in the world and on the world community as a whole. By shaping the outlook of its followers, the Church can (...) make a significant contribution to stabilizing interdenominational relations, in particular, in the formation of religious tolerance in general. (shrink)

This article reviews and comments on the five categories of arguments used to defend zero tolerance with regard to sexual contacts resulting from the physician-patient relationship as summarised by Cullen. In addition it puts forward a hypothesis—“fear of loss by third party”—as a psychological explanation for the collective insistence on a zero tolerance policy.