Comparatism, Asiatic religions and ideas of tolerance in early XVIIIth century European culture

서지정보

ㆍ발행기관 : 서강대학교 철학연구소 ㆍ수록지정보 : 철학논집
ㆍ저자명 : Rolando Minuti

목차

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영어 초록

In Traité sur la tolérance first published in 1762, Voltaire proposed to
the Europeans a provocative and universal notion of the tolerance, by
comparing Europe with Asia. Voltaire admired Asiatic tolerance and
denunciated the intolerance and violence of Christianity in Europe. He
considered the concept of tolerance as a political and juridical tool for
managing religious differences and arrived at the notion of tolerance as a
universal value, 《apanage de l'humanité》. This view is based on the
general deistic trend between the end of the ⅩⅦ th and the beginning of
the ⅩⅧ th century, following the interest and the astonishment of the
diversities of Asiatic societies, cultures and religions. I think that noting
the observation of Europe, at that period, of Asia can play an important
role for understanding the correlation among the "Orient", a generic deism,
and the transformation of the conception of tolerance. The observation is
mainly found, on the one hand, in the Jesuit missionary works, and on
the other hand, in the literatures of philosophes. Thus it is a central task
to investigate these sources. In the Jesuit literatures, the tolerance was
considered on the view of preaching. In particular, the evaluation of
Chinese tolerance was that it is showing their substantial indifference
towards all religions. We can find in Jesuits' works the traditional meaning
of tolerance as endurance and sufferance and the interpretation of tolerance
as a delicate tool that imposed to be careful for not confusing truth and
falsehood in religion. This proposed the great value of doctrinal
intolerance, conceived as the impossible acceptance of an equal value
between true and false. That is to say, tolerance was very useful if one
considered the goal of christian propagation in the world, but it was not
acceptable at all if considered as an absolute and universal value, which
could produce indifference and relativism. On the contrary, some kinds of
freethinkers or philosophes criticized the madness and the intolerance of
Christianity or monotheistic religions. They accepted only a moral content
of these religions. Around the middle of the ⅩⅧ th century, Montesquieu
approached the concept of tolerance mainly as a political tool. His
political analysis gave an significant contribution to the study and the uses
of religious comparatism. Cérémononies religieuses de tous les peuples du
monde published in seven volumes between 1723 and 1737 is very
important to scholarship, though it has not so been noted. I think that the
attention for the varieties of expressions of civil and religious tolerance
which we found in many writings of the ⅩⅦ th and the ⅩⅧ th
centuries concerning Asiatic societies and cultures is not only an
interesting problem of intellectual and cultural history of Europe in
Modern age, but can be seen as a direct solicitation for another kind of
investigation. I'm convinced that a more careful study of the "tolerance of
the others" could not only introduce new issues for the study of ⅩⅧ th
century, but become an important agenda for our contemporary conscience.

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