In light of contemporary normative arguments about justice, the paper discusses the notions of tolerance and neutrality, and evaluates, in ethical and political-institutional terms, models for justification of tolerance as "mutual respect". It examines, at first in logical terms, the concept of tolerance, then moving to normatively denser conceptions of the concept. After indicating greater relevance, in the context of pluralistic societies, of the concept of tolerance as "mutual respect", it incorporates the notion of neutrality into the discussion, addressed to political institutions. After rejecting attempts to anchor tolerance (and neutrality) on neutral grounds, from the moral point of view, the text examines two models of justification - focusing on the values of autonomy and reasonable justification -, suggesting the possibility of its synthesis from perspectives drawn from Rawlsian liberalism.
tolerance, State neutrality; hard choices; mutual respect; models of justification