Why Tolerate Religion?: Updated Edition

Why it's wrong to single out religious liberty for special legal protections

This provocative book addresses one of the most enduring puzzles in political philosophy and constitutional theory-why is religion singled out for preferential treatment in both law and public discourse? Why are religious obligations that conflict with the law accorded special toleration while other obligations of conscience are not? In Why Tolerate Religion?, Brian Leiter shows why our reasons for tolerating religion are not specific to religion but apply to all claims of conscience, and why a government committed to liberty of conscience is not required by the principle of toleration to grant exemptions to laws that promote the general welfare.

Author: Brian Leiter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 08/24/2014
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.64lbs
Size: 8.45h x 5.49w x 0.41d
ISBN: 9780691163543

About the Author
Brian Leiter is the Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Naturalizing Jurisprudence and Nietzsche on Morality and the coeditor of the annual Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law. He writes the Leiter Reports blog.