A Critique of Pure Tolerance

A Critique of Pure Tolerance is a 1965 book published by Beacon Press, written by the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff, the sociologist Barrington Moore Jr., and the philosopher Herbert Marcuse. Its three essays discuss the political role of tolerance. The title alludes to Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781), though the authors do not regard themselves as Kantians in any strict sense. In a joint foreword, they acknowledge their differences: Wolff accepts the methods of analytic philosophy, Marcuse opposes them, and Moore is critical of philosophy in general. Despite these disagreements, they agree that the prevailing theory and practice of tolerance are hypocritical and conceal appalling political realities.

Wolff proposes studying tolerance through an analysis of the theory and practice of democratic pluralism. Marcuse, in the best-known essay of the volume, argues that achieving the objective of tolerance requires intolerance toward prevailing policies, attitudes and opinions, and extending tolerance to those that are outlawed or suppressed. He thus advocates a "liberating tolerance", intolerant of right-wing movements and tolerant of left-wing ones.

The book was controversial. The sociologist Nathan Glazer reviewed it negatively in the American Sociological Review, calling it "peculiar" and faulting Wolff for failing to separate facts from theory. In 1970 the philosopher Maurice Cranston described it as Marcuse's most popular and disturbing work to date. Alasdair MacIntyre criticised Marcuse's claim that the proper end of tolerance is truth rather than rationality. Later, the political scientist Ronald Bayer linked the idea of "repressive tolerance" to gay rights activists who disrupted psychiatrists' lectures while campaigning to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.