This chapter considers the challenges to, and the resources for, cultivating a
personal capacity for tolerance, according to the writings of Benedict Spinoza
(1632–1677). After articulating two main components of personal tolerance, I
examine the features of Spinoza’s theory of cognition that make the cultivation of
tolerance so difficult. This is followed by an analysis of Spinoza’s account of
overcoming intolerant tendencies. Ultimately, I argue that the capacity of individuals
to be tolerant depends crucially on the establishment of conditions of
trust, conditions that are conspicuously lacking in many modern democracies
