TOLERANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF POLITICS AND CULTURE: THOUGHTS ON S. ŽIŽEK’ S IDEAS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the criticism of tolerance in works of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. The novelty of S. Žižek’s methodological approach to tolerance as a political and cultural phenomenon is revealed and characterized in the article. Particular attention is focused on Žižek’s discovery of the role of institutional unconscious, the influence of explicit and implicit rules on modern cultural identity in the process of social interaction. The problem of political and ideological manipulations aimed at rooting of tolerant behavior in the public consciousness, is touched upon by Žižek. In this regard, the issues of the relationship between politics, law and morality; social obligation and personal responsibility are explored. The author discourses on the new semantic value tolerance arising from the interpretation of S. Žižek’s ideas about universal forms of culture. Dialectics of tolerant relationship is shown through the contradiction categories “I” - Different, private and general in culture. Possibilities of coping tolerant relations in a multicultural world and international dialogue are associated with the recognition of the unity of human culture, of its autonomy in relation towards the policy and regulatory, providing freedom for the development of moral antagonisms. The necessity to rethink the principles that constitute the essential foundation of law is considered in connection with the historical volatility of their value orientations.