Word: worde
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...urban liberal like me, the word “value” can have some suspicious connotations. It brings to mind the “values voters” of the last two or three presidential elections, in which “values” seemed a stand-in for an unexamined and potentially bigoted moral rubric—an ethical compass calibrated not by reason or argument but by a seat-of-the-pants, bottom-of-the-gut, irrational “feeling” about what is right. Or, in the completely opposite direction, the word...
...develop and articulate for myself a set of values—whether about social justice or civic participation, art or scholarship—and, second, to learn to produce objects that I believe have value in themselves. The first could be called the ethical and aesthetic side of the word “value,” and the second could be called the productive or material side...
Since one thing I’ve learned at Harvard is that etymology will improve almost any argument (or at least extend its length), let me begin with a brief history of the word. “Value” started from the Latin valere, passing through Old French before landing with a messy splash in English. An odd cluster of meanings branched from its two short syllables: it meant to be healthy, to be able, or to be worthy; when used to describe words, it also meant to be meaningful or to be significant. Somewhere along...
This is not likely to be the last word from the GOP on health-care reform. Also in the works is a proposal by moderate House Republicans that assures that the government would not interfere with medical decisions now left to doctors and their patients. But one thing seems clear: Republicans have figured out that, this time, the debate over health-care reform is not one they are going to win simply by saying...
However, the interpretation of the word rejale rests with the jurists and clerics who make up the Guardian Council. All of them, of course, are men. And on Wednesday, they chose the candidates for the presidency. All of them, once again, were...