orrectly understood, toleration means respect for people, but not
satisfaction with mistake or fault. Nowadays it often takes a different
meaning. The dominant discourse on toleration speaks a double language:
1) "people live in the way they want", 2) "this is the way you have to
live". About the first aspect (the reduction of truth to opinion) three
arguments are developed by the author: a) the dominant meaning of
toleration falls into relativism; b) this kind of relativism encloses
people into themselves; c) so understood, toleration gives no sense to
liberty. With regard to the second aspect (the unequal equality of
opinions) the paper focuses on two main ideas: a) radical toleration or
freedom destroy at the end themselves; b) in fact, a "double standard"
is involved in the spirit of our days, on the one hand it affirms a
total freedom, the equality of every opinion; on the other, it sets new
rules, it says which opinions are better. The great success of the late
modernity has been making toleration a way of conformity. Philipe Bénéton
Key words: Toleration, Opinion and truth, Relativism, Late modernity.
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Nº 201, mayo-agosto 1995 
