Learning that disagreement can be negotiated, that your first thoughts are very often not your best thoughts, that the voices of others need not be hostile and contemptuous but friendly and collaborative, is one of the most important elements of any civilised education. People who teach philosophy in schools almost always report the enthusiasm with which children will enter the discussion of important ideas, and the ways in which practice at reflecting on them and discussing them improves their general outlook, their behaviour, and their approach to disagreement or potential conflict. These ideas have a historical pedigree, and took their modern shape from the time of the scientific revolution in the 17th century, through the Enlightenment and down to the present.Ĭhildren appreciate this, sometimes better than adults. We have ideas about which voices are authoritative, what rights we have, how laws should be made, or where liberty ends or injustice begins.
We have ideas about how science should be conducted, how a liberal society should defend itself, how discussion is better than conflict, how far toleration should be extended.
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