ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that it is neither from the dualistic either/or perspective characterizing the existentialist sociology of the absurd nor within the functional-conflict approach to deviance but only within the monistic paradox emanating from the social-contraction principle that deviance, in terms of the "ascent through descent" model. It suggests that the popular notion of social tolerance so prevalant among so-called liberal, democratic circles may reflect social indifference or patronizing tendencies rather than egalitarian tolerance. Either/or was the anti-Hegelian phrase coined by Soren Kierkegaard to express the impossibility of preserving contradictory ideas of "thesis" and "antithesis" to be included in a new "synthesis". The creative relationship between seemingly contrasting elements inherent in the questioning hypothesis that connects them calls for a brief reformulation of the tikkun concept, in light of the proposed philosophical "sociology of the paradox". In the structurally contracting multiple actualization system, not only intolerance of tolerance but also tolerance toward intolerance is institutionally and constitutionally impossible.
