Download file 69 KB Texto completo en español More of: Agustín  Squella

One way of understanding philosophy is to consider it an activity that has to do first with the significance of words rather than with the truth. With the meaning of words that science uses without definition, that philosophy itself uses without addressing their significance, and even of those words reputed to be important that are used in everyday speak.
From that perspective, this article examines the words "tolerance," "law" and "democracy" and calls attention to the fact that tolerance designates a virtue, law a cultural phenomenon normative in nature whose distinctive characteristic is coercion, and democracy a form of government. In addition to relating those three concepts in some way to each other, the article also links them to imperfection —to the imperfection both of individuals as well as of the societies they form. In summary, it says that it is because we are imperfect that we need the law, that we opt for democracy, and that we behave tolerantly towards others. By way of tolerance, the article concludes with compassionate images used by Voltaire in the final part of his famous work on the subject.