Erziehung, Pluralismus und die Macht der Toleranz

Tolerance is widely considered to be one of the core values of liberal democracies. In light of recent critiques put forward by theoreticians of power, however, the political and moral status of tolerance as a virtue and a legitimate aim of education, has increasingly been brought into question. Based on an analysis of the specific normative role and function of tolerance in educational circumstances, the paper develops a critical reconstruction of tolerance from a theory of power perspective. This critique raises central theoretical questions concerning the legitimate scope of tolerance as an educational aim and Its relationship with competing conceptions of pluralism.