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Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration

ISBN-13: 9780271028118
Publisher: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
By Gary Remer
Price: AUD $67.99
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 20/02/2008
Format: Paperback (230.00mm X 150.00mm) 328 pages Weight: 510g
Categories: Research methods: general [GPS]

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Religious toleration is much discussed these days. But where did the Western notion of toleration come from? In this thought-provoking book Gary Remer traces arguments for religious toleration back to the Renaissance, demonstrating how humanist thinkers initiated an intellectual tradition that has persisted even to our present day. Although toleration has long been recognized as an important theme in Renaissance humanist thinking, many scholars have mistakenly portrayed the humanists as proto-Englightenment rationalists and nascent liberals.

Remer, however, offers the surprising conclusion that humanist thinking on toleration was actually founded on the classical tradition of rhetoric. It was the rhetorician's commitment to decorum, the ability to argue both sides of an issue, and the search for an acceptable epistemological standard in probability and consensus that grounded humanist arguments for toleration. Remer also finds that the primary humanist model for a full-fledged theory of toleration was the Ciceronian rhetorical category of sermo (conversation).

The historical scope of this book is wide-ranging. Remer begins by focusing on the works of four humanists: Desiderius Erasmus, Jacobus Acontius, William Chillingworth, and Jean Bodin. Then he considers the challenge posed to the humanist defense of toleration by Thomas Hobbes and Pierre Bayle. Finally, he shows how humanist ideas have continued to influence arguments for toleration even after the passing of humanism—from John Locke to contemporary American discussions of freedom of speech.

“Remer has written an exceptionally lucid account of the intellectual and political tradition underlying the idea of religious toleration and the implications of that tradition for contemporary policy on free speech. . . . This wide-ranging, thoroughly researched, and systematically argued book makes an important contribution to the history of rhetoric, political theory, and Western intellectual history.”

—Choice

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Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration