Word: argumentation
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Kaufman's final argument is that drugs and drug dealing are illegal and anti-social behavior. Of course, he's right that drugs are illegal and anti-social in mainstream society, but we shouldn't wish to punish someone solely because the law says their actions should be punished. To avoid a circular justification of law, the two students must have done something that was wrong in and of itself. To figure out if the students deserve sympathy or scorn, we need to look further than coarse categorizations of drugs and drug dealers. Were they disruptive influences in the community...
...body politic and social contract. Mansfield, Herrnstein, Murray and D'Souza argue that the academic rigors of society and Americans' competitiveness is decreasing because of the large number of undesirables and unqualifieds entering universities and jobs all around the country at the expense of bright whites and Asians. The argument reminds one of the segregationist platform in the 1950s and 1890s which argued that allowing black children to be educated in the same schools around white children would denigrate them intellectually. The true intent, during those times and during our own, is to keep as many African-Americans and Latinos...
...argument's sake that the abuse of a law allowing assisted suicide is a distinct possibility [MEDICINE, April 15]. Would it not be better to tailor the law with stringent conditions and guidelines rather than throw it out altogether? Many of the laws of this country are susceptible to abuse. Consider freedom of speech or the right to bear arms. Should we throw them out? The decision to die should be personal. Only the individual who is suffering can say when bearable pain has become unbearable. If that person wishes to be dead, why are we arguing? Whose life...
...third argument put forward by Mansfield regards the disparity between the SAT scores of black and white admits to Harvard. He notes the discrepancy with glee, as if the fact of its existence somehow demonstrates the insidiousness of affirmative-action programs. But the very purpose of affirmative action is to supplement criteria like test scores with a more complete view of applicants' other qualities. In his report, President Rudenstine acknowledges the gap, but rightly points out, first, that a fair admissions program does not look at numbers alone, and second, that black SAT scores have been gradually converging with white...
First, in his lengthy historical account of the role of diversity in Harvard's development, Rudenstine's argument that current affirmative-action policies are compatible extensions of the diversity held in mind by past Harvard presidents is unconvincing. Both men viewed diversity primarily in terms of geographic origins and intellectual passions, not race. Rudenstine spends more than half his report outlining the historical context of diversity. While paying lip service to the often unjust ways in which Harvard has treated its "other" students--blacks, southern European immigrants, Jews, women--Rudenstine largely omits mention of these unadmirable accomplishments. Four omissions...