ABSTRACT
The essays in this volume are concerned with the theoretical and conceptual issues involved in the idea of toleration. They discuss these issues primarily in the context of contemporary debates about racial, religious and sexual toleration. However, in considering these problems, the contributors often refer to and draw upon the work of earlier philosophers and political theorists. In particular, John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty is a frequent point of reference and it is this work that provides the theoretical context for much contemporary writing on toleration. 1 However, Mill's work itself is the culmination of over three hundred years of discussion and debate about the place of toleration in the modern state of Western Europe and, more latterly, North America. In this introduction we shall first very briefly indicate some of the main developments in ideas about toleration with especial emphasis on Mill's seminal essay; we will then consider the three main areas of practical concern with which the essays in this collection deal; and finally we will identify what we take to be some of the most significant theoretical issues which are relevant to those practical problems and which the essays in this volume explore.
