Tolerance and Pluralism in the Political Thought of the 19th Century

Abstract

For the analysis of contemporary discourse of tolerance and pluralism it is indispensable to examine the historical, political and philosophical context where it first came to be evaluated. Protestantism created the historical situation where it became a main political relevance to protect the individual value choices and to let the people choose freely. The freedom of conscience and thought evolved naturally from the religious tolerance. In my paper I present the classical thoughts of liberal thinkers of the 19th century on this issue, because they have defined the framework in which we can elaborate our thoughts on pluralism.