Word: argumentative
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...general education requirement. Why not rationalism and empiricism, or idealism and materialism, or the subjective and the objective? Finally, if the requirement is meant to be the union of all or any of these (some students concentrate on Islamic jihad, others on the Reformation, still others on the argument from design or the ontological argument for God’s existence, still others on biblical history), it just doesn’t hang together as a coherent requirement. Again, we have to keep in mind that the requirement will attract attention from far and wide, and for a long time...
...akin to the students from Social Analysis 10 lobbying Professor N. Gregory Mankiw at his home to curve their midterms up. Most would agree that such a move would be completely inappropriate, which is why tactics that aim to make a scene rather than to convey a real argument often backfire. Those who might otherwise believe that workers should receive better benefits thus avoid SLAM due to its alienating strategies...
Some argue that these methods are completely valid, claiming that they “draw attention” to an argument. Yet in doing so they draw more attention to themselves than to the actual issues. Students at Harvard who are passionate enough about an issue to stage a protest would be more effective if they focused their efforts on the intellectual merit of their arguments. Though inducing others to join a cause through rallies and protests may seem the revolutionary, “cool” thing to do—a throwback to the ’60s?...
Indeed, the point of activism is to draw attention to a cause, and though some may call for more rational argument, all too often nobody will listen no matter how reasonable one is. That’s why activists are so committed to holding rallies, plastering the campus with posters, or staging sit-ins. Activism executed respectfully yet provocatively is a necessary tool in ensuring the most important facet of a Harvard education—the cultivation of political awareness and engagement...
...only one of the films that takes place in a city, depicts a blind man living in Moscow who spends his days weaving string bags to give away to passers-by. All of the films are characterized by long, static shots—whether of an argument between brothers or an attempt to free a cow’s head from a jug—that allow events to unfold as they do in reality. The films largely resist attaching a narrative or an explicit meaning to their subjects, instead seeming to focus on the minute details briefly before moving...