I was chatting with Bruce Ackerman tonight, a student of John Rawls. He talked about how Rawls belief in a reasonable pluralism and hope for an overlapping consensus in America stemmed from his fundamental decency. Bruce remembers taking his class of 200 students...

There was a long line of students waiting to ask Rawls a question. Bruce had to leave. That evening Rawls called Bruce, a 21 year old student, and said so did you have a question for me that you did not get to ask. Rawls was a towering intellect who valued everyone’s opinion.

I don’t know why I felt so moved by that story. Other than to say we live in such polarized times with far too much certitude in our own opinions. Great philosophers like Rawls suggest that there is a humility within our character and a capacity for shared understanding.

Our times call for more thinking, for more listening, for more examining. I still believe in Rawls hope that we can find an overlapping consensus about fundamental American ideas that will lead to a just society.