ABSTRACT
"Tolerance" is simply the name of the virtue that interprets ethics claims. In colonial America, Nathaniel Ward preached the use of force against heresy for the sake of saving souls, intolerance for the sake of God. True tolerance also requires each man or woman to walk the razor's edge in his relations with those in whom he finds something to disapprove. True tolerance depends on having convictions—the right convictions—about what is good for human beings and about how to realize the goods. Naturally, the coherence of tolerance in the face of ultimate concern is the acid test of any theory of this alleged virtue, and, therefore, of any political society which claims to be founded on it. Virtues are complex dispositions of character, deeply ingrained habits by which people call upon all of their passions and capacities in just those ways that aid, prompt, focus, inform, and execute their moral choices instead of clouding them, or obstructing their execution.
