Toleration, Diversity, and Global Justice

In his book Toleration, Diversity, and Global Justice, Kok-Chor Tan challengesthe realist tradition's popularity and its assumption that the state ofnature is essentially immoral. Instead, he points to the growing role of internationalgovernment organizations ( e.g., the UN and the EU), which he statesindicate morality's global predominance. Centered on the premise of liberalism'sprimacy- as an ideology and a practice- the book focuses on the philosophicaltensions among liberals in terms of liberalism's meaning and scope.Two questions domjnate his analysis: First, what are the limits of liberaltoleration, and should liberal states tolerate or criticize nonliberal statesin the name of furthering liberalism? Second, is liberalism, based on theidea of individualism, compatible with collectivist cultures or societies?Within this context, the author examines liberalism's domestic and globalconsequences. Tan notes that if a society is formatted along the parametersof liberalism, then toleration and individualism compliment each other.However, as such compatibility does not exist in nonliberal states, the questionbecomes one of liberals' morality and responsibility in terms ofwhether such non liberal states should be tolerated.By posing this question, it appears that the author is alluding to theimplications of liberalism in the international front, namely, whether liberalstates have the jurisdiction to intervene in nonliberal states' matters ofdomestic jurisdiction. Another question is whether such intervention - indefense of individualism, morality, and autonomy - contradicts the veryessence of liberalism, namely, its commitment to autonomy even for nonliberalstates. The author phrases the question slightly differently by askingwhether liberalism's emphasis on autonomy (defined in individual terms)defines the limits of tolerating non liberal states.ln addressing the questions surrounding the moral imperative of liberalsvis-a-vis nonliberal societies and states, Tan distinguishes between twokinds of liberalism: political liberalism with an overriding emphasis on toleration(acceptance), and a comprehensive liberalism with an overridingemphasis on autonomy and individualism. In other words, those politicalliberals restrict their concerns only to those "uncontroversial concerns ofsociety." Instead, the concern is on the design of political institutions and, ...