Some Achilles' heels of thinking skills: a response to Higgins and Baumfield

Steven Higgins and Vivienne Baumfield have recently attempted to defend the much discussed idea of general thinking skills against attacks from three quarters, what they regard as a priori objections, which they liken to Zeno 's paradox that Achilles will not catch the tortoise; domains theories of k nowledge, which oppose the idea of thinking skills being general and transc ending domains, and the claim that experts use subject specific knowledge, and don't use general thinking skills. We examine these defences and find t hem flawed and worrying. We conclude that this is a domain in serious need of a priori approaches.