Word: questionability
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...might as well begin to argue from it. The arguments that follow need a preface, however. I may have learned only two things in my four years at Harvard. The first is that an equally intelligent, rational, and valid argument can be made on all sides of any question from any and all premises. The second is that those arguments have no relationship to anything but themselves...
...existential question leads into a related one. This one is more difficult to explain. As far as I can see, you can never take a relative action. If you participate in a peaceful protest against the war. you have made an absolute decision about the merits of the war. You have said that the war is, on the whole, wrong. In effect, actions always change beliefs into absolutes. There is no way to act against the war by 40 per cent. Any protest at all proves that you have decided that the war's benefits are outweighed by its faults...
Radicals could argue endlessly with Vernon and members of the development service whether the citizens of the developing country are helped much by economic growth "despite the character of the government." Vernon readily conceded that the point involved the "old philosophical question- whether you think the time has come to operate by the revolutionary device of smashing everything, or whether you should operate by change within the structure without the brutality and pain of revolution...
...formulation of the problem, he would not have received the funds. This government research grant would be for the purpose of "understanding the development process." not for determining whether it should be initiated, under what conditions, or by which government. Essentially the development problem is transformed into a technical question with the underlying issues obscured or taken for granted...
...hidden political questions in social science research can also be seen by considering advisory work performed for the government. Vernon feels that most consultants with government agencies lends the adviser an opportunity to press for "new initiatives, bright departures" in established policies. A political scientist who gave advice on counter insurgency warfare or political development in Vietnam. for example, would probably justify his activity by saying that he was merely offering technical assistance: the question of whether the policy was appropriate was irrelevant to his own technical, non-ideological role. By saying nothing about the purposes of counter-insurgency warfare...