WHICH OPINION IS RIGHT? REFLECTIONS ON THE NOTIONS OF OPINION AND OBSTINACY IN DEMOCRACY

The emphasis of twenty-seventh and eighteenth-century thinkers to defend religious tolerance is well known. Today, considered one of the mainstays of the democratic rule of law, discussions about tolerance went a long way towards its recognition as a civic virtue. The purpose of the article is to discuss the notions of opinion and obstinacy from the perspective of politics and philosophy, especially in the works of John Locke and Pierre Bayle. The conclusion shows that this debate brings fruitful reflections capable of enlightening certain contemporary political debates, more precisely the omnipresence of material and symbolic violence generated by the obstinacy and by the dissemination of fundamentalisms in social networks.