The concept of tolerance and examples of tolerant attitudes

You've probably started hearing about tolerance very often. So what is it? Let's figure it out. The word “tolerance” itself originates from the Latin word “tolerantia”, literally translated as patience. In sociology, tolerance is tolerance for a worldview, religion and behavior that is alien to you.

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Most likely you are now thinking: “how can this be? After all, the modern world now dictates such rules that, on the contrary, it is emphasized in every possible way that there is no need to tolerate it.” Tolerance is a different story. This term is usually called respect. After all, you want to be respected, right?

But another person may not agree with your point of view and your behavior, but shows tolerance and respect because he understands that you have the right to do what you do, as long as you do not break the law. Tolerance is a set of rules, which means that all people are equal.

In this article:

What are personal boundariesWhy is it important to be tolerantTolerance, what is it?Why is it fair to be tolerantHow to realize tolerance?Instead of conclusion

What are personal boundaries

Personal boundaries are something you have the right to, just like any other person. You have the right to set these boundaries yourself, you can do whatever you want within their framework. But who likes having his limitations violated? Everyone has the right to personal boundaries, every person is free to choose their religion and customs, but it is important to remember that your boundaries end where another person’s begin.

Tolerance is precisely about this tolerance, about the fact that in modern society it is simply necessary to respect the boundaries of another person, respect a person as an individual and accept his views, as he accepts yours. You need to understand that accepting does not mean trying on yourself. After all, you don’t argue that two and two are four, you understand this and move on with your life. So it is here. Live on!

Is tolerance necessary?

In my opinion, you need to be tolerant, but you cannot be tolerant. Yes, we must recognize the rights of other cultures and nations, the special needs of people with disabilities. But we should not be tolerant of unconditional evil. By this I mean any lifestyle that interferes with other people and the individual himself, that is, an antisocial lifestyle.

And yes, you need to be resilient to the difficulties of life, but you cannot be tolerant. You need to take an active tolerant position, so to speak:

• We should not have a lack of reaction to something that contradicts the norms of society or our personal beliefs.
• Complete tolerance is death, in our case - moral, moral, psychological. In some cases, perhaps physical death.
• Through tolerance, one can achieve the point that a person will completely stop resisting external stimuli, but will blindly absorb into himself, accept into his inner world everything that is given to him, or regularly underestimate the necessary living conditions. This is what we see in modern society.

In engineering, “tolerance” means “permissible deviation without affecting functionality or value.” I think this can be adopted. “You won’t surprise anyone with this” – I would call the main thought of our society. That is why I propose to consider tolerance as an acceptable deviation that does not affect functionality: do with yourself what you want, but in such a way that it does not deprive you of personal value, social significance and does not interfere with society. We no longer react to tattoos, piercings, extreme entertainment. It's just a shell. Tolerance for the inner world of people is much more important.

We have become so open to everything new that we have forgotten about selectivity. You can't accept everything that comes your way. You need to analyze, you need to have a stable system of values ​​and views. You need to build personal boundaries. There must be something you will never accept in people. But we are by no means talking about a nation, faith or health characteristics, we are talking about personal qualities.

For example, I do not accept insults and shouting. They are not and will not be in my house, otherwise I will leave it. There are no people around me who feed on this. Firstly, I don’t accept this, which means I don’t behave like that, and secondly, attempts are stopped or people are cut off. Someone will regard this position as coldness or rudeness. Let's be tolerant: everyone has the right to their opinion. But with a person for whom insults are the value and norm of life, we are not on the same path. “I’m tolerant, but I care” – I’ll paraphrase the thought with which I started this article:

• I am not tolerant of those who abuse animals, but I am tolerant of the mental characteristics of these people and their childhood traumas or pedagogical neglect.
• I could understand and accept their pain, but not the consequences and not the unwillingness to deal with their problems.

Being tolerant and being tolerant and indifferent are two different things. The examples can be continued indefinitely. For example, you need to be tolerant of taste preferences in music (some people listen to rock, some classics, some rap). It doesn’t matter what genre gives a person inner harmony, if it doesn’t affect social behavior, then why not. You may not understand how they listen to it, but you can simply accept it. But if music is screaming under the windows and doesn’t let you sleep, then it doesn’t matter at all what genre it is, what’s important is people’s antisocial behavior. There can be no talk of acceptance here, because in this context it gives rise to permissiveness.

Why is it important to be tolerant

Tolerance in everything is great. After all, it is through tolerance that we become kinder and wiser. If you remove disrespect for your neighbor from your life, then you will have a lot of time for yourself.

What is tolerance?

By ceasing to hate someone else's life, you will let kindness into your heart, cleanse your energy of negativity and pay attention to strengthening your boundaries, which suffer while you throw stones at another person. By showing tolerance, you are not obliged to remain silent if you disagree with something. You can constructively, correctly, and most importantly calmly convey your views or ask about something, the main thing is not to get personal and not to insult your interlocutor.

Tolerance, what is it?

Sociologists distinguish several types of tolerance.

• Natural tolerance.

This type is common in children. These little creatures are too busy with self-knowledge and self-identification to pay attention to the color of another person’s skin; they simply will not understand why their mother is taking them away from their dark-skinned friend and are likely to be upset by such a parent’s gesture. Natural tolerance is an innate quality that is inherent in everyone, but under the yoke of society we are deprived of this quality. It's time to learn from children and revive this quality in yourself.

• Moral tolerance.

This type is about respect, patience, wisdom. People of this type may not agree with this or that point of view, but if they speak out about it, they will do it with the calmness of an elephant, they will try to build a very correct dialogue, and if insults fly in response, they will remain silent and step aside.

• Moral tolerance.

People with this type of tolerance always put themselves in the shoes of another person and analyze what it would be like for them there. Why did a person choose this particular religion? Maybe because the place of birth of a person became fundamental for this choice? Morally tolerant people will always be imbued with the problem of another person, without daring to condemn him.

• Ethnic tolerance.

This type implies respect for other ethnic groups. A person with this type, having arrived in the United Arab Emirates, will never ask the question “why should I follow their rules?” It seems logical to him to follow the rules when in a foreign country, this is how respect is shown.

What is tolerance?

Tolerance is tolerance for the right of other people to have their own worldview, lifestyle, sexual orientation, and behavior that is different from ours. Necessary in relation to another people, nationality, religion, gender. At the same time, tolerance does not mean concession, indifference or abandonment of one's own opinions, beliefs, convictions or morals. You can be tolerant of another person's values, but reserve the right to disagree with their beliefs. For example: be tolerant of a drunkard, but condemn the phenomenon of drunkenness itself.

Different dictionaries interpret tolerance differently. Scientific literature explains tolerance as the recognition of equality, the denial of superiority. In pedagogy , it means goodwill towards different groups of the population. In ethics , this is a moral quality that characterizes a person’s recognition of the interests and principles of others. Philosophers consider this quality a life position, and politicians consider it an active attitude, mutual understanding and cooperation.

As UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay , “Tolerance is humanism in action.” In 1996, the UN General Assembly proposed an annual celebration of a day of tolerance and non-violence. Now every year on November 16, schools and other educational institutions hold open lessons and show films about mutual harmony between cultures and nationalities. And Tolerance Centers in many countries hold Tolerance Week to attract public attention to this problem.

That is, in everyday understanding, tolerance is living in harmony with other communities. But it is not clear where this harmony ends and whether there are limits to tolerance? In the universal understanding of tolerance, it is permissible to forget about tolerance when manifestations of racism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, human phobia, and ethnophobia occur. But it's a fine line that philosophers have pondered for centuries.

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Where did tolerance come from?

From Latin, the term “tolerantia” was translated as “forced patience, voluntarily endured suffering,” therefore it was initially identified with negativity and evil. Later, the concept of “restraint” was added to the translation, and tolerance was interpreted as a concession on the issue of freedom of religion.

In the 17th century, tolerance was developed as a separate philosophical category. This happened after the Thirty Years' War, during which conflicting religious fanatics almost killed each other. The most famous advocate of tolerance towards representatives of other religious faiths was Voltaire.

In 1953, an English doctor introduced this concept to denote the tolerance of the immune system to transplanted foreign tissue. At the same time, this is the body's addiction to the medications . Tolerance is the complete inability of the body to produce antibodies, which leads to inevitable death of a person.

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In the 19th century, sociologists took up the problem of tolerance. The definition of tolerance was supplemented by an understanding of self-expression and inner freedom, as well as patience with opponents during discussions. Today, thanks to the efforts of UNESCO, tolerance has become an international concept, which stands for a tendency to compromise and agreement.

Tolerance is a spiritual concept that is embedded in all religions of the world . Quote from the Gospel: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” There are similar sayings in Confucianism, Islam, and Hinduism. There are also words from folk wisdom: “They don’t interfere with someone else’s monastery with their own rules” or “Whoever sat in the wagon train, sing those songs.”

The spiritual leader of followers of Tibetan Buddhism, the 14th Dalai Lama, says that patience and tolerance cannot be considered a sign of weakness. These are signs of strength not to grow anger and resentment. And the ability to forgive is the real antidote to anger.

Why is it fair to be tolerant?

Each person has the same sky above his head, the sun, the stars. Do you agree that it is very ridiculous to believe that someone deserves a better life just because of the color of their skin and the shape of their eyes? We are all born on the same planet and have the right to move around it as we want, the main thing is peacefully.

Today, many would do well to remove the word “come in large numbers” from their vocabulary, because this is a direct manifestation of intolerance. It is not a person’s fault that he was born in a region or country where, for example, there are no jobs. He gained courage and left his native land to find income or his destiny.

It is necessary to accept this person with all sincerity and kindness, because he is all alone and he needs support. This example applies not only to other nationalities and visitors. The scheme is familiar to everyone, since in childhood it was already applicable, for example, to a new student in the class.

On tolerance towards people with disabilities

It is not a person’s fault that he was born or became different from you. Deciding not to communicate with him just because he has a disability is fundamentally wrong. This cliché prevents us from being able to fully explore ourselves as human beings. After all, you must admit, it is not so important whether a person has vision if he is an excellent conversationalist. In any case, even if such a person differs from you in some way externally, his internal qualities do not depend in any way on his external appearance.

Types and levels of tolerance

Tolerance can be:

• political;
• gender;
• pedagogical (level of education, intellectual development);
• age (but “he’s a child” is not an excuse for cruelty);
• religious;
• in relation to people with special needs.

Remember how easily children make acquaintances (age, gender, race, status are not important to them), of course, if the parents did not have time to instill in the child the difference. Why is this happening? From birth, we are all given the ability to tolerate, the so-called natural tolerance, but with age we lose it. This feature is associated with the functioning of the psyche at an early age: the child does not separate himself from the outside world.

Tolerance levels include:

1. Personal tolerance. Implies a broad worldview, respect and understanding of the value of the right of every person to realize their potential in any way.
2. Social tolerance. Creation by the individual of an appropriate social circle that shares his views on tolerance and maintains social balance. Internal beliefs pass into a system of behavior and direct the activity of the individual.
3. Moral tolerance. A person learns to restrain his emotions and behavior in a situation where social norms or internal beliefs require it, despite negatively irritating external conditions. Wisdom, logic and self-regulation help with this. You can counteract, but in a socially acceptable way, and not by becoming like external stimuli.
4. Moral tolerance. A person tries to enter into the position of another (“external stimulus”), to understand the motives of his behavior. If this is successful, then self-control acquires an internal basis, rather than conditional adherence to norms. The previous level helps to avoid conflicts (difficult situations), and this level allows you to resolve conflicts and find common ground (“I understand you, but you also understand me”).

Tolerance can be low (irritation from the whole world), medium (patience for the advantages and disadvantages of some people, the desire to communicate), high (full acceptance of those with whom a person communicates, pleasure from communication, comfort from life). It is important that tolerance creates comfortable living conditions. When we hate and don’t understand everything around us, then “everything infuriates us” - what a pleasure that is. When we blindly accept everything, we can deprive ourselves of comfort, creating dangerous conditions around us, spreading fear. And only with high, but correct tolerance, with a selective attitude towards our environment, we live happily, in harmony and comfort with ourselves and society.

Thus, to be tolerant is to want to understand, understand, find common ground with another person; interest in the unknown. And only in the process of analysis does a person decide: to accept or not to accept, whether he understands it or not. A good example of tolerance is the desire to understand the traditions of other cultures, interest in customs, comparison with one’s own culture.

How to realize tolerance?

You have already learned about the first rule: there is one sky above each person’s head. But there are other ways to realize and accept that tolerance is important and necessary for a healthy society.

Analyze your ancestry. It happens that a person is intolerant of one of the nations, but then it turns out that this nationality is in his genetics. Almost all nationalities are 100% in our family tree, so is it worth it then to hate yourself because it turns out you didn’t love your wonderful great-grandmother?

The realization that it is you who need tolerance, and not someone else. You can only decide for yourself and in this matter you should not look at your neighbor. The argument is simple - tolerance provides the advantage of psychological comfort. You can't change the world, but you can change yourself.

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Ask yourself: “would our world be so beautiful if we were all the same?” The people who create this world are unique, and despite their limited abilities or skin color, they strived and strive to make the world a better place. So why interfere with your intolerance in creating beauty for those who know how to create?

How to be tolerant in a world full of paradoxes

Do not consider your opinion the only correct one

In one study, Prejudiced and unaware of it: Evidence for the Dunning-Kruger model in the domains of racism and sexism, participants were asked to rate how tolerant they were of people of a different gender or race. And then they asked questions that help reveal hidden biases. It turned out that sexists and racists considered themselves the most tolerant. And the self-esteem of truly unbiased people was quite modest. And this is a good example of how you can misinterpret your own opinion, not to mention someone else’s.

Start with yourself

Intolerance often arises in relation to views and lifestyles that do not directly affect us at all. Let’s say, if someone wants to wear flip-flops on their socks, why does that make us sad? Perhaps such a person looks ridiculous or unfashionable to us. But this is not his problem, but ours. And it is we who need to figure out what frightens and touches us so much that it causes hostility.

Self-examination is painful. It is always easier to shift responsibility for discomfort onto someone else. At the same time, life will become much easier if you deal with internal problems. Because the people who piss us off won't go away. It's much easier to stop being angry.

To be open

In medicine, tolerance means a decrease in reaction to repeated administration of a substance, addiction to it. This definition already contains instructions. We may become irritated when we encounter certain people because we perceive them as something foreign. But tolerance is a habit. The more often we interact with a stimulus and react to it uniformly, the easier it is to form a stereotype of tolerant behavior.

Don't criticize, but be interested

Unusual things and people irritate us. But perhaps it would be easier for us to accept if we knew why things are the way they are. For example, wearing socks under flip-flops protects against blisters. But the family of a person of a different nationality are fifth-generation residents of this area, and he is not the one who “came in large numbers” here. Such sudden discoveries make you look at everything in a new light.

Tell your opinion

If the previous paragraphs were more about tolerance, then here we come straight to its paradox. As we remember, the main weapon of tolerance is education. And public discussions work great for these purposes.

For example, let’s take the scandal with the “dominance” of black characters in cinema. The pendulum swings, and the two extreme positions are most visible. On one there are those who are worried that there are no black people in the Chernobyl series. On the other are viewers who express their outrage at any dark-skinned character. But now the problem of discrimination in the film industry has been brought to the level of public discussion, and this is already a lot. And the pendulum will sooner or later calm down and take a position in the center.

Don't be afraid of discussions

Popper suggests not depriving the voices of hostile philosophies (which could be any of us). Truth is born in disputes, but only if the interlocutors are at least a little ready to listen to each other. If we simply defend our position without hearing our opponent, it is a waste of time. But if you approach the process consciously, you can get a very good result.

• Find out new data and adjust your views. It is normal to change your mind in light of additional information.
• Strengthen your position. The opponent’s arguments sometimes only add bricks to it.
• Get arguments for new disputes. Opponents often ask questions that baffle us. But they also provide food for thought. There is an opportunity to think and prepare in case someone asks the same thing in the future.

It is also important that the discussion is aimed not only at opponents, but also at spectators. We may not convince our opponent, but we will make those around us think. That is why it is important to conduct the argument in an environmentally friendly manner and remember that this is a conversation, not a war.

Don't tolerate cannibalism

Of course, we can ignore hostile statements and no one should judge us for it. To resist “cannibalism”, you need an internal resource. Otherwise, while saving the world, we risk not saving ourselves. But if we have this resource, it is possible and necessary to express disagreement with a hostile position.

For example, you were always silent when someone was insulted in front of you, and then one day you stopped. For some time you will look strange in the eyes of others. And then someone else will take your side. And further. Nothing revolutionary, just words. But sometimes they are enough to change everything.