Word: argumentation
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...slavery, of whites living in the 1990s. One might argue that financially wealthy Americans (mostly whites, some African-Americans and others) owe poor Americans (mostly African-Americans, Latinos and native Americans, some whites and others) a better "opportunity to compete equally in society," but this is not the argument Daniels makes...
Perhaps more telling is the national attempt at social engineering. Forced school busing is a perfect example. In an attempt to increase diversity and open up homogenous communities, the government instituted the busing of African-American students to primarily white schools. Sound somewhat familiar? Despite the similarities, the argument for the social necessity of busing was much more compelling than Harvard's claim: before busing, there was a strong likelihood that members of the different communities may never have crossed paths, let alone have meaningful interaction. Harvard, on the other hand, prides itself on providing regular opportunities for significant interchange...
...first-degree murder in the 1989 shotgun killings of parents Jose and Kitty; in Los Angeles. The first time, the brothers were tried in simultaneous courtroom proceedings with separate juries. Deliberations were deadlocked, and a mistrial was declared. This time, a single jury accepted the prosecution's argument that the pair executed their mother and father in order to tap into the family fortune, rejecting the defense's contention that the killings were a response to abuse...
...however logical this downbeat argument may sound, it doesn't appear to be prevailing among scholars who ponder such issues for a living. That isn't to say philosophers are suddenly resurrecting the idea of a distinct, immaterial soul that governs the body for a lifetime and then drifts off to its reward. They're philosophers, not theologians. When talking about some conceivably nonphysical property of human beings, they talk not about "souls" but about "consciousness" and "mind." The point is simply that as the information age advances and computers get brainier, philosophers are taking the ethereal existence of mind...
Chalmers' forthcoming book is already making a stir. His argument has been labeled "a major misdirector of attention, an illusion generator," by the well-known philosopher Daniel Dennett of Tufts University. Dennett believes consciousness is no longer a mystery. Sure there are details to work out, but the puzzle has been reduced to "a set of manageable problems...