臺灣今天面臨了多數民主社會「缺乏共識」的問題，這問題倘若不設法解決，臺灣的民主之路將會走得日益艱辛。今天，臺灣所面臨的問題也曾在其他國家出現，在那些國家中的一些有智之士也曾對這些問題進行探討，並且提出解決方案。所謂「他山之石，可以攻錯」，我們不妨借鏡前人的智慧與經驗，提出解決臺灣社會分裂問題之道。在本文中，筆者將參照十八世紀的蘇格蘭及二十世紀的美國經驗，從他們所面臨的問題與所提出的解決之道中，探尋今天臺灣社會可行的共識培養之方。在本文的結論中，筆者指出，多元分歧與共識可以並存於社會當中；透過不斷地交流與溝通，多元分歧可能形成共識；而舊有的共識也可能因為社會環境的變化而重新出現分歧。面對多元分歧，我們無需過度擔憂，但必須確保社會大眾具備溝通與形成共識所需的基本條件以及各種意見有通暢的溝通管道。而達成共識的方法可分為二大部分，其一須在教育上扎根，其二要在社會與政治活動當中努力。一方面要透過教育，使所有社會成員具備有效溝通的條件，例如：開放與接納異見的心胸和態度、共通的知識基礎、理性的思考能力；另一方面則要在社會中積極建構溝通平台、營造共同生活經驗，乃至修正代議政治的運作方式。

Taiwan is a newly emergent democracy. It is pointed out by the authors of this essay that Taiwan, as a new democracy, is now facing one major difficulty that many democracies in the West have had in the past, namely, the lack of social consensus. The authors therefore suggest that people who are concerned about Taiwan’s democracy may look back the history of those democracies that had the similar problem and learn how these democracies dealt with the difficulty mentioned. Two democracies, the 18 century Scotland and the United States, are taken as examples which had experiences in tackling the issues mentioned by means of education. The suggestions made by A. Macintyre, John Dewey and a group of Harvard faculty after the second world war are invoked from the perspective of providing possible strategies for building up social consensus that is much need by Taiwan. The essay is divided into five sections. In the first section, the authors spell out the reasons why Taiwan is divided socially and politically any why we should pay attention to the issue of the lack of social consensus. From sections 2-4, the ideas of Macintyre, John Dewey and the authors of Harvard Report are introduced respectively with the aim of drawing possible lessons for the formation of social consensus by educational means. In the final section, some concrete suggestions are made as far as Taiwan’s particular situation is concerned.