The chief lesson I have drawn is that reaching consensus is not an important criterion for progress in philosophy. This is true in several areas of my own professional life, including in my discussions with colleagues, in my own study of philosophical texts, and in my own philosophical research. First, there is much be learned by exploring diverse perspectives to complex philosophical issues. My best discussions with colleagues are ones where we understand and explore the differences between our philosophical views; when this occurs, I rarely end up agreeing with others but I frequently gain new insight nonetheless. Second, this lack of agreement among philosophers—which occurs at so many levels--is itself a fascinating intellectual phenomenon. As an historian of philosophy, I am often enthralled by the ways that philosophers' thoughts about a single issue or idea have changed over time. Finally that philosophical questions and issues are not amenable to simple answers is exciting to me...

I agree that critical thinkingskills are vital. Taking a course in critical thinking is not the onlyway to gain these skills, however, and so I think the most importantquestion is whether high school students have plentiful opportunitiesto do this. Inpart, this is a matter of curriculum. I suspect that required coursesin critical thinking or introduction to philosophy are not the bestways to inspire high school students to work hard on developingcritical thinking skills. Instead, I agree with the idea that criticalthinking should be taught “across the curriculum,” which is to sayshould be taught in diverse ways in nearly every course. The trick, ofcourse, is designing excellent curriculum that does this well. Thatsaid, I suspect that quality of teaching matters more than curriculardesign: it is our relationships with individual teachers that caninspire us to work hard and learn the most, and the most importanteducational reforms may be those that help our teachers to learn how...