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Revision 345830967 of "Noam Chomsky" on enwiki{{Redirect|Chomsky|other persons of the same name|Chomsky (surname)}}
{{Infobox Philosopher<!-- Philosopher category -->
|region = [[Western Philosophy]]
|era = [[20th-century philosophy|20th]] / [[21st-century philosophy]]
|color = #B0C4DE
|name = Avram Noam Chomsky
|image_name = Noam__chomsky_cropped.jpg
|image_size = 187x217
|birth_date = {{bda|df=yes|1928|12|7}}
|birth_place = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]
|death_date =
|alma_mater = [[University of Pennsylvania]] (BA 1949, MA 1951, Ph.D 1955)
|school_tradition = [[Linguistics]], [[analytic philosophy|Analytic]]
|main_interests = [[Linguistics]]{{·}} [[Psychology]]<br>[[Philosophy of language]]<br>[[Philosophy of mind]]<br> [[Politics]]{{·}} [[Ethics]]
|alma mater = [[University of Pennsylvania]]
|religion = [[Atheist]]<ref>[http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#chomsky The Reality Club: BEYOND BELIEF]</ref>
|notable_ideas = [[Generative grammar]], [[universal grammar]], [[transformational grammar]], [[government and binding]], [[X-bar theory]], [[Chomsky hierarchy]], [[context-free grammar]], [[principles and parameters]], [[linguistic minimalism|the minimalist program]], [[language acquisition device]], [[poverty of the stimulus]], Chomsky-[[Marcel-Paul Schützenberger|Schützenberger]] theorem, [[Chomsky Normal Form]], [[propaganda model]]<ref name="Letters to the Editor in ''Journal of Palestine Studies''">Kanan Makiya, Fouad Moughrabi, Adel Safty, Rex Brynen, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0377-919X(199422)23%3A4%3C196%3AL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3 "Letters to the Editor" in ''Journal of Palestine Studies,''] ''Journal of Palestine Studies'' via [[JSTOR]] (Vol. 23, No. 4, Summer, 1994, pp. 196-200), accessed December 4, 2007. Relevant quotation: "On page 146 of my book, I clearly adopt ''the propaganda model developed by Noam Chomsky'' and Edward Herman..."</ref>
|influences = [[Pāṇini]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], [[John Dewey]], [[Mikhail Bakunin]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]], [[Adam Smith]], [[Zellig Harris]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[René Descartes]], [[George Orwell]], [[C. West Churchman]], [[W.V.O. Quine]], [[Alan Turing]].
|influenced = [[Niall McLaren]], [[Colin McGinn]], [[Edward Said]], [[Christopher Hitchens]], [[Steven Pinker]], [[Peter Ludlow]], [[Tanya Reinhart]], [[Morris Halle]], [[Gilbert Harman]], [[Jerry Fodor]], [[Howard Lasnik]], [[Robert Fisk]], [[Neil Smith (linguist)|Neil Smith]], [[Ray Jackendoff]], [[Norbert Hornstein]], [[Jean Bricmont]], [[Marc Hauser]], [[Norman Finkelstein]], [[Robert Lees (linguist)|Robert Lees]], [[Bill Hicks]], [[Mark Baker (linguist)|Mark Baker]], [[Julian C. Boyd|Julian Boyd]], [[Ray C. Dougherty]], [[Derek Bickerton]], [[Amy Goodman]], [[Michael Albert]].
}}
Roland is a much bigger Nazi even than I am!
Rancillly yours,
--- Gilad Atzmon
'''Avram Noam Chomsky''' ({{pronEng|ˌnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski}}; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, [[philosopher]], <ref name="Stony Brook Interview">[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHS1NraVsAc Noam Chomsky: The Stony Brook Interviews Part Two], a video interview on philosophical topics</ref><ref name="szabo">[http://chomsky.info/bios/2004----.htm "Noam Chomsky"], by Zoltán Gendler Szabó, in ''Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, 1860-1960'', ed. Ernest Lepore (2004). "Chomsky's intellectual life had been divided between his work in linguistics and his political activism, philosophy coming as a distant third. Nonetheless, his influence among analytic philosophers has been enormous because of three factors. First, Chomsky contributed substantially to a major methodological shift in the human sciences, turning away from the prevailing empiricism of the middle of the twentieth century: behaviorism in psychology, structuralism in linguistics and positivism in philosophy. Second, his groundbreaking books on syntax (Chomsky (1957, 1965)) laid a conceptual foundation for a new, cognitivist approach to linguistics and provided philosophers with a new framework for thinking about human language and the mind. And finally, he has persistently defended his views against all takers, engaging in important debates with many of the major figures in analytic philosophy..."</ref><ref>[http://chomsky.info/bios/1998----.htm "Noam Chomsky"], in ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (1998), [[Norbert Hornstein]].</ref><ref>''[[The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy]]'' (1999), "Chomsky, Noam," [[Cambridge University Press]], pg. 138. "Chomsky, Noam (born 1928), preeminent American linguist, philosopher, and political activist...Many of Chomsky's most significant contributions to philosophy, such as his influential rejection of behaviorism...stem from his elaborations and defenses of the above consequences..."</ref> [[cognitive science|cognitive scientist]], [[political activist]], author, and lecturer. He is an [[Institute Professor]] and professor [[emeritus]] of [[linguistics]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref>[http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/chomsky/index.html MIT Faculty website]</ref> Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as one of the [[People known as the father or mother of something|fathers]] of modern [[linguistics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200307140016 |title=Great thinkers of our time - Noam Chomsky|accessdate=2008-08-02|last=Clark|first=Neil|date=2003-07-14|publisher=[[New Statesman]]|quote=Regarded as the father of modern linguistics, founder of the field of transformational-generative grammar, which relies heavily on logic and philosophy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1FFA3A5F0C768CDDAB0994D0494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fC%2fChomsky%2c%20Noam |title=A Changed Noam Chomsky Simplifies|accessdate=2008-08-02 |last=Fox|first=Margalit|date=1998-12-05|publisher=[[New York Times]]|quote=… Noam Chomsky, father of modern linguistics and the field's most influential practitioner; …}}</ref><ref>Thomas Tymoczko, Jim Henle, James M. Henle, ''Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to Modern Logic'', Birkhäuser, 2000, p. 101.</ref> Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a [[political dissident]], an [[anarchist]],<ref>Noam Chomsky, ''Chomsky on Anarchism'' (2005), [[AK Press]], pg. 5</ref> and a [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialist]] intellectual. Chomsky is often viewed as a notable figure in [[contemporary philosophy]].
In the 1950s, Chomsky began developing his theory of [[generative grammar]], which has undergone numerous revisions and has had a profound influence on [[linguistics]]. His approach to the study of language emphasizes "an innate set of linguistic principles shared by all humans" known as [[universal grammar]], "the initial state of the language learner," and discovering an "account for linguistic variation via the most general possible mechanisms."<ref name="cambridge">''[[The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy]]'' (1999), "Chomsky, Noam," [[Cambridge University Press]], pg. 138</ref> He also established the [[Chomsky hierarchy]], a classification of [[formal language]]s in terms of their generative power. In 1959, Chomsky published a widely influential review of [[B. F. Skinner]]'s theoretical book ''[[Verbal Behavior (book)|Verbal Behavior]]'', which was the first attempt by a [[behaviorism|behaviorist]] to provide a functional, [[Operant conditioning|operant]] analysis of language. In this review and other writings, Chomsky broadly and aggressively challenged the [[behaviorism|behaviorist]] approaches to studies of behavior dominant at the time, and contributed to the [[cognitive revolution]] in psychology. His naturalistic<ref>[http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=EJ599372 "Language & Communication: the problem of naturalizing semantics"], ''Language & Communication'', April 2000</ref> approach to the study of language has influenced the [[philosophy of language]] and [[philosophy of mind|mind]].<ref name="cambridge" />
Beginning with his [[The Responsibility of Intellectuals|opposition to the Vietnam War]], Chomsky established himself as a prominent critic of US foreign and domestic policy. He has since established himself as a prominent and prolific political philosopher and commentator; he is a self-declared [[Anarcho-syndicalism|anarcho-syndicalist]] as an
adherent of [[libertarian socialism]], which he regards as "the proper and natural extension of [[classical liberalism]] into the era of advanced industrial society."<ref>{{cite news |title=Government in the Future|publisher=Chomsky's website|year=1970|url=http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo/19700216.mp3|accessdate=2008-06-25}}
</ref>
According to the [[Arts and Humanities Citation Index]] in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar during the 1980–92 period, and was the eighth most-cited source.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chomsky is Citation Champ|publisher=[[MIT]] News Office|date=1992-04-15|url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1992/citation-0415.html|accessdate=2007-09-03}}
</ref><ref>{{cite news
|last=Hughes
|first=Samuel
|title=Speech!
|publisher=''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]''
|date=July/August 2001
|url=http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/200107--.htm
|accessdate=2007-09-03
|quote=According to a recent survey by the Institute for Scientific Information, only Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, and Freud are cited more often in academic journals than Chomsky, who edges out Hegel and Cicero.}}</ref><ref name="robinson">
{{cite news
|last=Robinson
|first=Paul
|title=The Chomsky Problem
|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''
|date=1979-02-25
|quote=Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today. He is also a disturbingly divided intellectual.}}</ref> He is also considered a prominent cultural figure.<ref>Matt Dellinger, "Sounds and Sites: Noam Chomsky," ''[[The New Yorker]]'', [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/31/030331on_onlineonly02 Link], 3-31-03, accessed 1-26-09</ref> At the same time, his status as a leading critic of [[Foreign policy of the United States|US foreign policy]] has made him controversial.<ref>[http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA296856.html "The Accidental Bestseller], ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', 5-5-03, accessed 10-11-08. "Chomsky's controversial political works...became mainstream bestsellers."</ref>
==Biography==
[[File:MIT Campus.jpg|thumb|[[Stata Center|The Ray and Maria Stata Center]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], in which Chomsky holds his office in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.]]
Chomsky was born on the morning of December 7, 1928 to [[Jewish]] parents in the affluent [[East Oak Lane, Philadelphia|East Oak Lane]] neighborhood of [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], the son of noted professor of [[Hebrew]] at [[Gratz College]] and [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] (Industrial Workers of the World) member, [[William Chomsky]] (1896–1977), a native of [[Ukraine]]. His mother, Elsie Chomsky (née Simonofsky), a native of what is present-day [[Belarus]], grew up in the United States and, unlike her husband, spoke "ordinary [[New York dialect|New York English]]." Their first language was [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]],<ref name=Goodman>{{cite web |url=http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20041126.htm |title=The Life and Times of Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Amy Goodman|publisher=www.chomsky.info |accessdate=2008-12-21|last=|first=}}</ref> but Chomsky said it was "taboo" in his family to speak it.<ref name=Goodman/> He describes his family as living in a sort of "Jewish [[ghetto]]," split into a "Yiddish side" and "Hebrew side," with his family aligning with the latter and bringing him up "immersed in Hebrew culture and literature." Chomsky also describes tensions he personally experienced with [[Irish Catholics]] and German Catholics and [[anti-semitism]] in the mid-1930s. He recalls German-American "Beer parties" celebrating the fall of Paris to the Nazis.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ghoXQxdk6s&feature=related]</ref> In a discussion of the irony of his staying in the 1980s in a Jesuit House in Central America, Chomsky explained that during his childhood, "We were the only Jewish family around. I grew up with a visceral fear of Catholics. They're the people who beat you up on your way to school. So I knew when they came out of that building down the street, which was the Jesuit school, they were raving anti-Semites. So childhood memories took a long time to overcome."<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Chomsky/Chomsky_Tapes_MAlbert.html | title = The Chomsky Tapes: Conversations with Michael Albert | month = November | year = 2001 | journal = [[Z magazine]]}}</ref>
Chomsky remembers the first article he wrote was at age 10 while a student at [[Oak Lane Day School|Oak Lane Country Day School]] about the threat of the spread of [[fascism]], following the fall of Barcelona in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. From the age of 12 or 13, he identified more fully with anarchist politics.<ref>Kreisler (2002), {{cite web
|title=Chapter 1: Background
|url=http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con1.html
|accessdate=2007-09-03}}</ref>
A graduate of [[Central High School of Philadelphia]], Chomsky began studying [[philosophy]] and [[linguistics]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1945, taking classes with philosophers such as [[C. West Churchman]] and [[Nelson Goodman]] and linguist [[Zellig Harris]]. Harris's teaching included his discovery of transformations as a [[linear transformation|mathematical analysis]] of language structure (mappings from one subset to another in the set of sentences). Chomsky referred to the morphophonemic rules in his 1951 Master's Thesis, ''The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew'', as transformations in the sense of [[Rudolf Carnap|Carnap's]] 1938 notion of rules of transformation (vs. rules of formation), and subsequently reinterpreted the notion of grammatical transformations in a very different way from Harris, as operations on the productions of a [[context-free grammar]] (derived from [[Tag system|Post production systems]]). Harris's political views were instrumental in shaping those of Chomsky.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GhwvCoZBFoYC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=chomsky+%22zellig+harris%22&source=web&ots=8hek6p86Fg&sig=SMBMAJ4rqkWT1MFySavr_K8TFE8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA47,M1|title=Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent - Google Book Search|publisher=books.google.co.uk|accessdate=2008-12-21|last=|first=}}</ref> Chomsky earned a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in 1949 and an [[Master of Arts (postgraduate)|MA]] in 1951.
In 1949, he married linguist [[Carol Chomsky|Carol Schatz]]. They remained married for 59 years until her death from cancer in December 2008.<ref>
{{cite web
|last=Marquard
|first=Bryan
|title=Carol Chomsky; at 78; Harvard language professor was wife of MIT linguist
|publisher=[[Boston Globe]]
|date=2008-12-20
|url=http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/12/20/carol_chomsky_at_78_harvard_language_professor_was_wife_of_mit_linguist/
|accessdate=2008-12-20}}
</ref> The couple had two daughters, [[Aviva Chomsky|Aviva]] (b. 1957) and Diane (b. 1960), and a son, Harry (b. 1967).
With his wife Carol, Chomsky spent time in 1953 living in [[HaZore'a]], a [[kibbutz]] in [[Israel]]. Asked in an interview whether the stay was "a disappointment" Chomsky replied, "No, I loved it," however he "couldn't stand the ideological atmosphere" in the early 1950s at the kibbutz, with Stalin being defended by many of the left-leaning kibbutz members who chose to paint a rosy image of future possibilities and contemporary realities in the USSR.<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20051110.htm Noam Chomsky interviewed by Shira Hadad]</ref>
Chomsky received his [[doctorate|PhD]] in linguistics from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1955. He conducted part of his doctoral research during four years at [[Harvard University]] as a [[Harvard Junior Fellow]]. In his [[Doctor of Philosophy|doctoral thesis]], he began to develop some of his linguistic ideas, elaborating on them in his 1957 book ''[[Syntactic Structures]]'', his best-known work in linguistics.
Chomsky joined the staff of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy). From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and in 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. As of 2008, Chomsky has taught at MIT continuously for 53 years.
In February 1967, Chomsky became one of the leading opponents of the [[Vietnam War]] with the publication of his essay, "[[The Responsibility of Intellectuals]]",<ref>{{cite journal
|last=Chomsky
|first=Noam
|title=The Responsibility of Intellectuals
|journal=[[The New York Review of Books]]
|volume=8
|issue=3
|pages=
|date=1967-02-23
|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/12172
|accessdate= 2007-09-03}}</ref> in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''. This was followed by his 1969 book, ''[[American Power and the New Mandarins]]'', a collection of essays that established him at the forefront of American dissent. His far-reaching criticisms of US foreign policy and the legitimacy of US power have [[Criticism of Noam Chomsky|made him a controversial figure]]: largely shunned by the [[Mass media|mainstream media]] in the United States,<ref>
{{cite web
|last=Turan
|first=Kenneth
|title=''Power and Terror''— Movie review
|publisher=''[[Los Angeles Times]]''
|date=2003-01-24
|url=http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-turan24jan24,0,1640744.story
|accessdate=2007-09-04
|quote=[Chomsky] "is so lucid" [and his] "point of view is so rarely heard.}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
|last=Wall
|first=Richard
|title=Who's Afraid of Noam Chomsky?
|publisher=LewRockwell.com
|date=2004-08-17
|url=http://www.lewrockwell.com/wall/wall26.html
|accessdate=2007-09-03
|quote=[Chomsky] has historically been distrusted and shunned by the US mainstream media.}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
|last=Flint
|first=Anthony
|title=Divided Legacy
|publisher=''[[The Boston Globe]]''
|date=1995-11-19
|url=http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/19951119.htm
|accessdate=2007-09-04
|quote=Ask this intellectual radical why he is shunned by the mainstream, and he'll say that established powers have never been able to handle his brand of dissent.}}
</ref><ref>
Barsky (1997), {{cite web|url=http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/4/17.html |title=Chapter 4|accessdate=2007-09-04}} Barsky quotes an excerpt of [[Edward Herman]] examining why "one of America's most well-known intellectuals and dissidents would be thus ignored and even ostracized by the mainstream press." For example, "Chomsky has never had an Op Ed column in the ''[[Washington Post]]'', and his lone opinion piece in the ''[[New York Times]]'' was not an original contribution but rather excerpts from testimony before the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]."
</ref> he is frequently sought out for his views by publications and news outlets worldwide.
Chomsky has received death threats because of his criticisms of US foreign policy.<ref name="Stroumboulopoulos">{{cite web
|last=Stroumboulopoulos
|first=George
|title=Noam Chomsky on ''The Hour''
|publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]
|date=2006-03-13
|url=http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=991
|accessdate=2007-09-04}}</ref> He was also on a list of planned targets created by [[Theodore Kaczynski]], better known as the [[Unabomber]]; during the period that Kaczynski was at large, Chomsky had all of his mail checked for explosives.<ref name="Stroumboulopoulos"/> He states that he often receives undercover police protection, in particular while on the MIT campus, although he does not agree with the police protection.<ref name="Stroumboulopoulos"/>
Chomsky resides in [[Lexington, MA|Lexington]], [[Massachusetts]] and travels often, giving lectures on politics.
==Contributions to linguistics==
'''Chomskyan''' linguistics, beginning with his ''[[Syntactic Structures]]'', a distillation of his '' Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory'' (1955, 75), challenges [[structural linguistics]] and introduces [[transformational grammar]]. This theory takes utterances (sequences of words) to have a syntax characterized by a formal grammar; in particular, a [[context-free grammar]] extended with transformational rules.
Children are hypothesized to have an [[innateness hypothesis|innate knowledge]] of the basic grammatical structure common to all human languages (i.e., they assume that any language they encounter is of a certain restricted kind). This innate knowledge is often referred to as [[universal grammar]]. It is argued that modeling knowledge of language using a formal grammar accounts for the "productivity" of language: with a limited set of grammar rules and a finite set of terms, humans are able to produce an infinite number of sentences, including sentences no one has previously said. He has always acknowledged his debt to [[Pāṇini]] for his modern notion of an explicit generative grammar. This is related to [[Rationalist]] ideas of [[A priori and a posteriori|a priori]] knowledge, in that it is not due to experience.
The Principles and Parameters approach (P&P)—developed in his Pisa 1979 Lectures, later published as ''[[Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures|Lectures on Government and Binding]]'' (LGB)—make strong claims regarding universal grammar: that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. (Hence the term principles and parameters, often given to this approach.) In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary [[lexical]] items (words, grammatical [[morpheme]]s, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples.
Proponents of this view argue that the pace at which children learn languages is inexplicably rapid, unless children have an innate ability to learn languages. The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur (and, according to Chomsky, should be attested if a purely general, rather than language-specific, learning mechanism were being employed), are also pointed to as motivation for innateness.
More recently, in his [[Minimalist Program]] (1995), while retaining the core concept of "principles and parameters," Chomsky attempts a major overhaul of the linguistic machinery involved in the LGB model, stripping from it all but the barest necessary elements, while advocating a general approach to the architecture of the human language faculty that emphasizes principles of economy and optimal design, reverting to a derivational approach to generation, in contrast with the largely representational approach of classic P&P.
Chomsky's ideas have had a strong influence on researchers investigating the [[Language acquisition|acquisition of language]] in children, though some{{Specify|date=March 2007}}<!-- I mean a sourced specification as to just how many these researchers are: a tiny but notable minority, a significant minority, a majority? it's clear there will be "some" people for almost anything, so it could mean anything from 1% to 99%.--> researchers who work in this area today do not support Chomsky's theories, instead advocating [[Emergence|emergentist]] or [[connectionist]] theories reducing language to an instance of general processing mechanisms in the brain.
He also theorizes that unlimited extension of a language such as English is possible only by the [[recursion|recursive]] device of embedding sentences in sentences.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
His best-known work in [[phonology]] is ''[[The Sound Pattern of English]]'' (1968), written with [[Morris Halle]] (and often known as simply ''SPE''). This work has had a great significance for the development in the field. While phonological theory has since moved beyond "SPE phonology" in many important respects, the SPE system is considered the precursor of some of the most influential phonological theories today, including [[autosegmental phonology]], [[lexical phonology]] and [[optimality theory]]. Chomsky no longer publishes on phonology.
===Generative grammar===
The Chomskyan approach towards [[syntax]], often termed [[generative grammar]], studies grammar as a body of knowledge possessed by language users. Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that much of this knowledge is innate, implying that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages.<ref name="aspects">{{cite book|title=Aspects of the Theory of Syntax|publisher=MIT Press|author=Chomsky, Noam|year=1965}}</ref> The innate body of linguistic knowledge is often termed [[Universal grammar|Universal Grammar]]. From Chomsky's perspective, the strongest evidence for the existence of Universal Grammar is simply the fact that children successfully acquire their native languages in so little time. Furthermore, he argues that there is an enormous gap between the linguistic stimuli to which children are exposed and the rich linguistic knowledge they attain (the "[[poverty of the stimulus]]" argument). The knowledge of Universal Grammar would serve to bridge that gap.
Chomsky's theories are popular, particularly in the [[United States]], but they have never been free from controversy. Criticism has come from a number of different directions. Chomskyan linguists rely heavily on the intuitions of native speakers regarding which sentences of their languages are well-formed. This practice has been criticized both on general methodological grounds, and because it has (some argue) led to an overemphasis on the study of English. As of now, hundreds of different languages have received at least some attention in the generative grammar literature,<ref>{{cite paper|title=Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar|author=Huang, Cheng-Teh James|year=1982|url= |publisher=MIT PhD dissertation}} Available online [http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/15215].</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hidatsa Syntax|author=Matthews, G.H.|year=1965|publisher=Mouton}}</ref><ref>{{cite paper|author=Platero, Paul Randolph|year=1978|title=Missing noun phrases in Navajo|publisher=MIT PhD dissertation}} Available online [http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/16328].</ref><ref>{{cite paper|title=Towards a Minimalist Account of Quirky Case and Licensing in Icelandic|author=Schütze, Carson T.|year=1993|publisher=MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 19}} Available online [http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/cschutze/Icelandic.MITWPL.fixed.pdf]</ref><ref>{{cite paper|title=Matching Effects and the Syntax-Morphology Interface: Evidence from Hindi Correlatives|author=Bhatt, Rajesh|publisher=MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 31|year=1997}} Available online [http://people.umass.edu/bhatt/papers/mscil.pdf].</ref>
but some critics nonetheless perceive this overemphasis, and a tendency to base claims about Universal Grammar on an overly small sample of languages. Some [[psychology|psychologists]] and [[psycholinguistics|psycholinguists]],{{Who|date=March 2009}} though sympathetic to Chomsky's overall program, have argued that Chomskyan linguists pay insufficient attention to experimental data from language processing, with the consequence that their theories are not psychologically plausible. Other critics (see [[language learning]]) have questioned whether it is necessary to posit Universal Grammar to explain child language acquisition, arguing that domain-general learning mechanisms are sufficient.
Today there are many different branches of generative grammar; one can view grammatical frameworks such as [[head-driven phrase structure grammar]], [[lexical functional grammar]] and [[combinatory categorial grammar]] as broadly Chomskyan and generative in orientation, but with significant differences in execution.
[[Cultural anthropology|Cultural anthropologist]] and linguist [[Daniel Everett]] of [[Illinois State University]] has proposed that the language of the [[Pirahã people]] of the northwestern rainforest of [[Brazil]] resists Chomsky's theories of generative grammar. Everett asserts that the [[Pirahã language]] does not have any evidence of [[recursion]], one of the key properties of generative grammar. Additionally, it is claimed that the Pirahan have no fixed words for colors or numbers, speak in single [[phoneme]]s, and often speak in [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]].<ref>[[The New Yorker]], John Colapinto. April 16, 2007. p. 119.</ref> However, Everett's claims have themselves been criticized. David Pesetsky of MIT, Andrew Nevins of Harvard, and Cilene Rodrigues of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil have argued in a joint paper that all of Everett's major claims contain serious deficiencies.<ref>http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/000411</ref> Chomsky himself has commented that "The reports are interesting, but do not bear on the work of mine (along with many others). No one has proposed that languages must have subordinate clauses, number words, etc. Many structures of our language (and presumably that of the Piraha) are rarely if ever used in ordinary speech because of extrinsic constraints."<ref>[[The Independent]] interview with Kevin Rodgers. August 28, 2006.</ref> The dispute continues.<ref>
{{cite news
|last=Ray
|first=Robin H.
|title=Linguists doubt exception to universal grammar
|publisher=[[MIT News]]
|date=2007-04-23
|url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/pesetsky-ling.html
|accessdate=2007-09-04}}
</ref>
===Chomsky hierarchy===
{{Main|Chomsky hierarchy}}
Chomsky is famous for investigating various kinds of [[formal language]]s and whether or not they might be capable of capturing key properties of human language. His [[Chomsky hierarchy]] partitions [[formal grammar]]s into classes, or groups, with increasing expressive power, i.e., each successive class can generate a broader set of formal languages than the one before. Interestingly, Chomsky argues that modeling some aspects of human language requires a more complex formal grammar (as measured by the Chomsky hierarchy) than modeling others. For example, while a [[regular language]] is powerful enough to model English [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], it is not powerful enough to model English [[syntax]]. In addition to being relevant in linguistics, the Chomsky hierarchy has also become important in [[computer science]] (especially in [[compiler]] construction and [[automata theory]]).<ref>Martin, Davis,. ''Computability, complexity, and languages: Fundamentals of theoretical computer science''. Boston: Academic, Harcourt, Brace, 1994: 327. Print.</ref>
{{Formal languages and grammars}}
==Contributions to psychology==
Chomsky's work in linguistics has had profound implications for modern [[psychology]].<ref>[http://www.cogsci.umn.edu/OLD/calendar/past_events/millennium/final.html The Cognitive Science Millennium Project<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> For Chomsky, linguistics is a branch of [[cognitive psychology]]; genuine insights in linguistics imply concomitant understandings of aspects of mental processing and human nature. His theory of a [[universal grammar]] was seen by many as a direct challenge to the established [[behaviorist]] theories of the time and had major consequences for understanding how children learn [[language]] and what, exactly, the ability to use language is. Many of the more basic principles of this theory (though not necessarily the stronger claims made by the [[principles and parameters]] approach described above) are now generally accepted in some circles.{{Dubious|date=March 2008}}
In 1959, Chomsky published an influential critique of [[B.F. Skinner|B.F. Skinner's]] ''[[Verbal Behavior]]'', a book in which Skinner offered a theoretical account of language in functional, behavioral terms. "Verbal behavior" he defined as learned behavior that has characteristic consequences delivered through the learned behavior of others. This makes for a view of communicative behaviors much larger than that usually addressed by linguists. Skinner's approach focused on the circumstances in which language was used; for example, asking for water was functionally a different response than labeling something as water, responding to someone asking for water, etc. These functionally different kinds of responses, which required in turn separate explanations, sharply contrasted both with traditional notions of language and Chomsky's psycholinguistic approach. Chomsky thought that a functionalist explanation restricting itself to questions of communicative performance ignored important questions. (Chomsky-Language and Mind, 1968). He focused on questions concerning the operation and development of innate structures for syntax capable of creatively organizing, cohering, adapting and combining words and phrases into intelligible utterances.
In the review Chomsky emphasized that the scientific application of behavioral principles from animal research is severely lacking in explanatory adequacy and is furthermore particularly superficial as an account of human verbal behavior because a theory restricting itself to external conditions, to "what is learned", cannot adequately account for generative grammar. Chomsky raised the examples of rapid language acquisition of children, including their quickly developing ability to form grammatical sentences, and the universally creative language use of competent native speakers to highlight the ways in which Skinner's view exemplified under-determination of theory by evidence. He argued that to understand human verbal behavior such as the creative aspects of language use and language development, one must first postulate a genetic linguistic endowment. The assumption that important aspects of language are the product of universal innate ability runs counter to Skinner's radical behaviorism.
Chomsky's 1959 review has drawn fire from a number of critics, the most famous criticism being that of Kenneth MacCorquodale's 1970 paper ''On Chomsky’s Review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior'' (''Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior'', volume 13, pages 83–99). MacCorquodale's argument was updated and expanded in important respects by Nathan Stemmer in a 1990 paper, ''Skinner's Verbal Behavior, Chomsky's review, and mentalism'' (''Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior'', volume 54, pages 307-319). These and similar critiques have raised certain points not generally acknowledged outside of behavioral psychology, such as the claim that Chomsky did not possess an adequate understanding of either behavioral psychology in general, or the differences between Skinner's behaviorism and other varieties; consequently, it is argued that he made several serious errors. On account of these perceived problems, the critics maintain that the review failed to demonstrate what it has often been cited as doing. As such, it is averred that those most influenced by Chomsky's paper probably either already substantially agreed with Chomsky or never actually read it. Chomsky has maintained that the review was directed at the way Skinner's variant of behavioral psychology "was being used in Quinean empiricism and naturalization of philosophy".<ref>Barsky (1997), {{cite web|url=http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/3/2.html |title=Chapter 3|accessdate=2007-09-04}}</ref>
It has been claimed that Chomsky's critique of Skinner's methodology and basic assumptions paved the way for the "[[cognitive revolution]]", the shift in American psychology between the 1950s through the 1970s from being primarily behavioral to being primarily cognitive. In his 1966 ''Cartesian Linguistics'' and subsequent works, Chomsky laid out an explanation of human language faculties that has become the model for investigation in some areas of psychology. Much of the present conception of how the mind works draws directly from ideas that found their first persuasive author of modern times in Chomsky.
There are three key ideas. First is that the mind is "cognitive", or that the mind actually contains mental states, beliefs, doubts, and so on. Second, he argued that most of the important properties of language and mind are innate. The acquisition and development of a language is a result of the unfolding of innate propensities triggered by the experiential input of the external environment. The link between human innate aptitude to language and heredity has been at the core of the debate opposing Noam Chomsky to [[Jean Piaget]] at the Abbaye de Royaumont in 1975 (''Language and Learning. The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky'', Harvard University Press, 1980). Although links between the genetic setup of humans and aptitude to language have been suggested at that time and in later discussions, we are still far from understanding the genetic bases of human language. Work derived from the model of selective stabilization of [[synapses]] set up by [[Jean-Pierre Changeux]], [[Philippe Courrège]] and [[Antoine Danchin]],<ref>
{{cite paper
|author=Changeux, Jean-Pierre; Courrége, Philippe; Danchin, Antoine
|title=A Theory of the Epigenesis of Neuronal Networks by Selective Stabilization of Synapses
| version =
|publisher=PNAS
|date=October 1973
|url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=4517949
|format=PDF
|accessdate=2007-09-04}}
</ref> and more recently developed experimentally and theoretically by [[Jacques Mehler]] and [[Stanislas Dehaene]] in particular in the domain of [[numerical cognition]] lend support to the Chomskyan "nativism". It does not, however, provide clues about the type of rules that would organize neuronal connections to permit language competence. Subsequent psychologists have extended this general "nativist" thesis beyond language. Lastly, Chomsky made the concept of "[[Modularity of Mind|modularity]]" a critical feature of the mind's cognitive architecture. The mind is composed of an array of interacting, specialized subsystems with limited flows of inter-communication. This model contrasts sharply with the old idea that any piece of information in the mind could be accessed by any other cognitive process (optical illusions, for example, cannot be "turned off" even when they are known to be illusions).
==Opinion on cultural criticism of science==
Chomsky strongly disagrees with [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] and [[post-modernism|postmodern]] criticisms of science:
<blockquote>
I have spent a lot of my life working on questions such as these, using the only methods I know of; those condemned here as "science", "rationality," "logic," and so on. I therefore read the papers with some hope that they would help me "transcend" these limitations, or perhaps suggest an entirely different course. I'm afraid I was disappointed. Admittedly, that may be my own limitation. Quite regularly, "my eyes glaze over" when I read polysyllabic discourse on the themes of [[poststructuralism]] and [[postmodernism]]; what I understand is largely [[truism]] or error, but that is only a fraction of the total word count. True, there are lots of other things I don't understand: the articles in the current issues of math and physics journals, for example. But there is a difference. In the latter case, I know how to get to understand them, and have done so, in cases of particular interest to me; and I also know that people in these fields can explain the contents to me at my level, so that I can gain what (partial) understanding I may want. In contrast, no one seems to be able to explain to me why the latest post-this-and-that is (for the most part) other than truism, error, or gibberish, and I do not know how to proceed.<ref>{{cite book
|last=Chomsky
|first=Noam
|authorlink=Noam Chomsky
|title=Chomsky on Democracy & Education
|publisher=Routledge
|date=November 22, 2002
|pages=93
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Y5Ouy4XoXPsC
|isbn=0415926319}}</ref>
</blockquote>
Chomsky believes that science is a good way to start understanding history and human affairs:
<blockquote>
I think studying science is a good way to get into fields like history. The reason is, you learn what an argument means, you learn what evidence is, you learn what makes sense to postulate and when, what's going to be convincing. You internalize the modes of rational inquiry, which happen to be much more advanced in the sciences than anywhere else. On the other hand, applying relativity theory to history isn't going to get you anywhere. So it's a mode of thinking.<ref>Kreisler (2002), {{cite web
|title=Chapter 3: Thinking about Power
|url=http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20020322.htm
|accessdate=2007-09-03}}</ref>
</blockquote>
Chomsky has also commented on critiques of "white male science," stating that they are much like the [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] and politically motivated attacks against "Jewish physics" used by the [[Nazism|Nazis]] to denigrate research done by Jewish scientists during the ''[[Deutsche Physik]]'' movement:
<blockquote>
In fact, the entire idea of "[[white male science]]" reminds me, I'm afraid, of "Jewish physics." Perhaps it is another inadequacy of mine, but when I read a scientific paper, I can't tell whether the author is white or is male. The same is true of discussion of work in class, the office, or somewhere else. I rather doubt that the non-white, non-male students, friends, and colleagues with whom I work would be much impressed with the doctrine that their thinking and understanding differ from "white male science" because of their "culture or gender and race." I suspect that "surprise" would not be quite the proper word for their reaction.<ref>{{cite web |last=Chomsky|first=Noam|title=Rationality/Science|publisher=[[Z Communications]]|url=http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1995----02.htm|accessdate=2009-10-11}}</ref>
</blockquote>
==Debates==
Chomsky has been known to vigorously defend and debate his views and opinions, in philosophy, linguistics, and politics.<ref name="szabo" /> He has had notable debates with such varied intellectuals as [[Jean Piaget]],<ref>Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini, ed., ''Language and Learning: The Debate Between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky'', Routledge, 1975.</ref> [[Michel Foucault]],<ref>[http://www.eduarchive.org/archive/chomsky-foucault-debate.html ''The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature''], WW Norton, 2006</ref> [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]],<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYlMEVTa-PI William F. Buckley vs. Noam Chomsky], YouTube</ref> [[Christopher Hitchens]],<ref>Noam Chomsky "[http://www.counterpunch.org/chomskybomb.html A Quick Reaction]", ''Counterpunch'' September 12, 2001</ref><ref>Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011008/hitchens Against Rationalization: Minority Report]", ''The Nation'', September 24, 2001</ref><ref>Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011008/hitchens20010924 Of Sin, the Left & Islamic Fascism]", ''The Nation'', 2001</ref><ref>Noam Chomsky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011015/chomsky20011001 Reply to Hitchens]", ''The Nation'', 2001</ref><ref>Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011015/hitchens20011004 A Rejoinder to Noam Chomsky]", ''The Nation'', 2001</ref><ref>Noam Chomsky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011015/chomsky20011004 Reply to Hitchens' 'Rejoinder']", ''The Nation'', 2001</ref> [[Richard Perle]],<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNAGE9rLFRg Chomsky vs. Perle], YouTube</ref> [[Hilary Putnam]],<ref>[http://blip.tv/file/420305 Hilary Putnam, "Externalism: Its Motivation and Its Critics"], Harvard University, 2007.</ref> [[WVO Quine]],<ref>KU Leuven, [http://www.researchportal.be/en/project/an-epistemological-reading-of-the-debate-between-quine-and-chomsky--(KUL_3H050619)/ "An Epistemological Reading of the Debate between Quine and Chomsky"], October 2003.</ref> and [[Alan Dershowitz]],<ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/2005/12/23/noam_chomsky_v_alan_dershowitz_a "Noam Chomsky v. Alan Dershowitz: A Debate on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"], Democracy Now!, 23 December 2005.</ref> to name a very few.
==Political views==
{{Main|Noam Chomsky's political views}}
[[Image:Noam Chomsky WSF - 2003.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Chomsky at the [[World Social Forum]] ([[Porto Alegre]]) in 2003.]]
{{Anarchism sidebar}}
Chomsky has stated that his "personal visions are fairly traditional anarchist ones, with origins in The Enlightenment and classical liberalism"<ref>Chomsky (1996), pp. 71.</ref> and he has praised [[libertarian socialism]].<ref> Chomsky, Noam, "Notes on Anarchism" [http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/other/notes-on-anarchism.html] … "Libertarian socialism is properly to be regarded as the inheritor of the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment."</ref> He is a sympathizer of [[anarcho-syndicalism]]<ref>Chomsky wrote the preface to an edition of [[Rudolf Rocker]]'s book ''Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice''. In it Chomsky wrote: "I felt at once, and still feel, that Rocker was pointing the way to a much better world, one that is within our grasp, one that may well be the only alternative to the 'universal catastrophe' towards which 'we are driving on under full sail'…" Book Citation: Rudolph Rocker. ''Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice''. AK Press. p. ii. 2004.</ref> and a member of the [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] union.<ref>''Industrial Workers of the World'' [http://www.iww.org/en/taxonomy/term/489/9 IWW Member Biographies]</ref> He published a book on anarchism titled, "Chomsky on Anarchism," published by the anarchist book collective [[AK Press]] in 2006.
Noam Chomsky has engaged in political activism all of his adult life and expressed opinions on politics and world events, which are widely cited, publicized, and discussed. Chomsky has in turn argued that his views are those the powerful do not want to hear, and for this reason he is considered an American political [[dissident]]. Some highlights of his political views:
* [[Political power|Power]], unless justified, is inherently illegitimate. The burden of proof is on those in authority to demonstrate why their elevated position is justified. If this burden can't be met, the authority in question should be dismantled. Authority for its own sake is inherently unjustified. An example of a legitimate authority is that exerted by an adult to prevent a young child from wandering into traffic.<ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=2G6kf7XM9Nk ''Anarchism 101 with Noam Chomsky'']</ref>
* That there isn't much difference between slavery, and renting one's self to an owner, or "[[wage slavery]]." He feels that it is an attack on personal integrity that destroys and undermines our freedoms. He holds workers should own and control their own workplace, a view held (as he notes) by the [[Lowell Mill Girls]].<ref>[http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con2.html Conversation with Noam Chomsky, p. 2 of 5<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>
* He has strongly criticized the [[foreign policy of the United States]]. Specifically, he claims double standards in a foreign policy preaching democracy and freedom for all, while promoting, supporting and allying itself with non-democratic and repressive organizations and states such as [[Chile]] under [[Augusto Pinochet]], and argues that this results in massive [[human rights]] violations. He often argues that America's intervention in foreign nations, including the secret aid given to the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua, an event of which he has been very critical, fits any standard description of [[terrorism]].<ref>[http://www.zmag.org/GlobalWatch/chomskymit.htm An Evening With Noam Chomsky<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>
* He has argued that the [[mass media]] in the United States largely serve as a [[propaganda]] arm and "[[Bought Priesthood|bought priesthood]]"<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=84NQ3IXpbOYC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=Bought+priesthood+chomsky&source=bl&ots=F0eMrSwYdg&sig=m34oCtCrKCtHPUewBnu9vmCPcHI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result Chomsky on Democracy & Education]</ref> of the [[U.S. government]] and U.S. corporations, with the three parties all largely intertwined through common interests. In a famous reference to [[Walter Lippmann]], Chomsky along with his coauthor, [[Edward S. Herman]] has written that the American media [[Manufacturing Consent|manufactures consent]] among the public.
* He has opposed the U.S. global "[[war on drugs]]", claiming its language to be misleading, and referring to it as "the war on certain drugs." He favors education and prevention rather than military or police action as a means of reducing drug use.<ref name="certain">{{cite web
|last=Chomsky
|first=Noam
|title=What Uncle Sam Really Wants
|publisher=[[Z Communications|ZMag]]
|year=1993
|url=http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sam/sam-3-2.html
|accessdate=2007-07-27 }}</ref> In an interview in 1999, Chomsky argued that, whereas crops such as tobacco receive no mention in governmental exposition, other non-profitable crops, such as marijuana, are specifically targeted because of the effect achieved by persecuting the [[Poverty|poor]]:<ref name="poor">{{cite video
| people = Noam Chomsky et al.
|title=[http://www.freespeech.org/videodb/index.php?action=detail&video_id=9529&browse=0 Noam Chomsky on Drugs]
| medium = TV
|publisher=ROX
|date=1999}}</ref> He has stated:
<blockquote>
US domestic drug policy does not carry out its stated goals, and policymakers are well aware of that. If it isn't about reducing substance abuse, what is it about? It is reasonably clear, both from current actions and the historical record, that substances tend to be criminalized when they are associated with the so-called dangerous classes, that the criminalization of certain substances is a technique of social control.<ref name=control>{{cite web
|last=Chomsky
|first=Noam
|title=DRCNet Interview: Noam Chomsky
|publisher=[http://stopthedrugwar.org/home DRCNet]
|date=2002-02-08
|url=http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/223/noamchomsky.shtml
|accessdate=2007-07-27 }}</ref>
</blockquote>
* Critical of the American [[state capitalism|state capitalist]] system and big business, he describes himself as a [[libertarian socialist]] who sympathizes with [[anarcho-syndicalist|anarcho-syndicalism]] and is also critical of [[Leninist]] branches of [[socialism]]. He also believes that libertarian socialist values exemplify the rational and morally consistent extension of original unreconstructed classical liberal and radical humanist ideas to an industrial context. Specifically he believes that society should be highly organized and based on democratic control of communities and work places. He believes that the radical humanist ideas of his two major influences, [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[John Dewey]], were "rooted in the Enlightenment and classical liberalism, and retain their revolutionary character."<ref>Chomsky (1996), p. 77.</ref>
* Chomsky has stated that he believes the United States remains the "greatest country in the world",<ref>[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0205/30/ltm.01.html "Interview with Noam Chomsky, Bill Bennett"], May 30, 2002 ''American Morning with Paula Zahn CNN''</ref> a comment that he later clarified by saying, "Evaluating countries is senseless and I would never put things in those terms, but that some of America's advances, particularly in the area of [[Freedom of speech|free speech]], that have been achieved by centuries of popular struggle, are to be admired."<ref>{{cite web
|last=Adams
|first=Tim
|title=Noam Chomsky: Thorn in America's Side
|publisher=''[[The Observer]]''
|date=2003-10-30
|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1094708,00.html
|accessdate=2007-09-04 }}</ref> He has also said "In many respects, the United States is the freest country in the world. I don't just mean in terms of limits on state coercion, though that's true too, but also in terms of individual relations. The United States comes closer to classlessness in terms of interpersonal relations than virtually any society."<ref>Chomsky, Noam. 2003. Chomsky on Democracy & Education. Routledge. p. 399</ref>
* Chomsky objects to the criticism that [[anarchism]] is inconsistent with support for government welfare, stating in part:
<blockquote>
One can, of course, take the position that we don't care about the problems people face today, and want to think about a possible tomorrow. OK, but then don't pretend to have any interest in human beings and their fate, and stay in the seminar room and intellectual coffee house with other privileged people. Or one can take a much more humane position: I want to work, today, to build a better society for tomorrow -- the classical anarchist position, quite different from the slogans in the question. That's exactly right, and it leads directly to support for the people facing problems today: for enforcement of health and safety regulation, provision of national health insurance, support systems for people who need them, etc. That is not a sufficient condition for organizing for a different and better future, but it is a necessary condition. Anything else will receive the well-merited contempt of people who do not have the luxury to disregard the circumstances in which they live, and try to survive.<ref>http://www.zmag.org/chomsky_repliesana.htm 'Answers by Noam Chomsky' to questions about anarchism</ref>
</blockquote>
* Chomsky sees many positive elements in the commune-like models of Israeli kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz), having stayed at one for a period during the 1950s, and when asked whether there were "lessons that we have learned from the history of the [[kibbutz]]," responded,<ref>[http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/186 Eight Question on Kibbutzim: Answers from Noam Chomsky Questions from Nikos Raptis]</ref><ref>[http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/kibbutzim01.htm Kibbutzim as a Climate for Learning]</ref>
<blockquote>"A lot, I think. In some respects, the Kibbutzim came closer to the anarchist ideal than any other attempt that lasted for more than a very brief moment before destruction, or that was on anything like a similar scale. In these respects, I think they were extremely attractive and successful; apart from personal accident, I probably would have lived there myself -- for how long, it's hard to guess. But they were embedded in a more general context that was highly corrosive. In part this had to do with the colonization/settlement project, which -- undeniably -- was taking away the lands of poor people.. In part this had to do with other aspects of the ideology, in particular, the fervent nationalism (without which the whole enterprise would have quickly collapsed -- it did take a good deal of fanaticism to endure the difficulties and hardships in the early days, lasting after the establishment of the State)"</blockquote>
* Asked in the same interview whether "the family and the raising of children in the kibbutz [were] radically different than that in an industrialized western 'democracy', say the US?" Chomsky responded,
<blockquote>"Until recently it was radically different. Children lived in children's houses. They came to the parents' homes (a room usually) after the working day, and spent several hours with parents and siblings and neighbors until dinner, which was again collective, usually separate for adults and children. Parents would put kids to sleep, but in the children's house. I've never seen a systematic study, but my rather strong impression is that this led to much closer and more intimate family ties than one finds typically in western societies; for one reason, because the parents were free from other obligations during the hours when parents and chilren were together, something hard to duplicate outside of a communal setting. Parents weren't preparing meals, cleaning living quarters, doing laundry, etc. Those were shared tasks in the community (though, I'm afraid, often "women's work," despite [many kibbutz members'] efforts to overcome that)."</blockquote>
* According to Chomsky: "I'm a boring speaker and I like it that way…. I doubt that people are attracted to whatever the persona is…. People are interested in the issues, and they're interested in the issues because they are important."<ref>[http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/chomskyrebel.php Chomsky Rebel]</ref> "We don't want to be swayed by superficial eloquence, by emotion and so on."<ref>Chomsky, Noam. [http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/19990120.htm "False, False, False, and False: Noam Chomsky interviewed by Ray Suarez"], January 20, 1999 ''Chomsky.info''</ref>
* He holds views that can be summarized as [[anti-war]] but not strictly pacifist. He prominently opposed the [[Vietnam War]] and most other wars in his lifetime. He expressed these views through a variety of protest methods, such as withholding taxes and peace walks. He published a number of articles about the war in Vietnam, including "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". However, he maintains that U.S. involvement in World War II was probably justified, with the caveat that a preferable outcome would have been to end or prevent the war through earlier diplomacy. In particular, he believes that the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|dropping of nuclear bombs]] on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "among the most unspeakable crimes in history".<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/debates/19670420.htm An Exchange on "The Responsibility of Intellectuals", Noam Chomsky debates with Fryar Calhoun, E. B. Murray, and Arthur Dorfman<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>
* He has a broad view of free-speech rights, especially in the [[mass media]]; he opposes [[censorship]] and refuses to take legal action against those who may have [[Slander and libel|libeled]] him.<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/letters/198509--.htm Free speech in a Democracy, by Noam Chomsky (Daily Camera)<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>
* He has made major criticisms of [[Israel]] and supporters of Israel, arguing that "supporters of Israel are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction", and that "Israel's very clear choice of expansion over security may well lead to that consequence"<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20080606.htm On the Future of Israel and Palestine]</ref>
Chomsky has frequently stated that there is no connection between his work in linguistics and his political views, and is generally critical of the idea that competent discussion of political topics requires expert knowledge in academic fields. In a 1969 interview, he said regarding the connection between his politics and his work in linguistics:
<blockquote>
I still feel myself that there is a kind of tenuous connection. I would not want to overstate it but I think it means something to me at least. I think that anyone's political ideas or their ideas of social organization must be rooted ultimately in some concept of human nature and human needs. (''New Left Review'', 57, Sept. – Oct. 1969, p. 21)
</blockquote>
==Influence in other fields==
'''Chomskyan''' models have been used as a theoretical basis in several other fields. The [[Chomsky hierarchy]] is often taught in fundamental [[computer science]] courses as it confers insight into the various types of [[formal language]]s. This hierarchy can also be discussed in mathematical terms<ref>{{cite web |last=Sakharov|first=Alex|title=Grammar|publisher=MathWorld|date=2003-05-12|url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Grammar.html|accessdate=2007-09-04}}</ref> and has generated interest among mathematicians, particularly [[combinatorics|combinatorialists]]. Some arguments in [[evolutionary psychology]] are derived from his research results.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lecture 6: Evolutionary Psychology, Problem Solving, and 'Machiavellian' Intelligence|publisher=Massey University|work=School of Psychology|year=1996|url=http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/lecture6/lect600.htm|accessdate=2007-09-04}}</ref>
The 1984 Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine and Physiology, [[Niels Kaj Jerne|Niels K. Jerne]], used Chomsky's generative model to explain the human immune system, equating "components of a generative grammar … with various features of
protein structures". The title of Jerne's Stockholm Nobel lecture was "The Generative Grammar of the Immune System".
[[Nim Chimpsky]], a chimpanzee who was the subject of a study in [[animal language acquisition]] at [[Columbia University]], was named after Chomsky in reference to his view of [[language acquisition]] as a uniquely human ability.
Famous computer scientist [[Donald Knuth]] admits to reading Syntactic Structures during his honeymoon and being greatly influenced by it. "…I must admit to taking a copy of Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures along with me on my honeymoon in 1961 … Here was a marvelous thing: a mathematical theory of language in which I could use a computer programmer's intuition!".
Another focus of Chomsky's political work has been an analysis of mainstream mass media (especially in the United States), its structures and constraints, and its perceived role in supporting big business and government interests.
[[Edward S. Herman]] and Chomsky's book ''[[Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media]]'' (1988) explores this topic in depth, presenting their "propaganda model" of the news media with numerous detailed case studies demonstrating it. According to this propaganda model, more democratic societies like the U.S. use subtle, non-violent means of control, unlike totalitarian systems, where physical force can readily be used to coerce the general population. In an often-quoted remark, Chomsky states that "propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." (Media Control)
The model attempts to explain this perceived [[systemic bias]] of the mass media in terms of structural economic causes rather than a conspiracy of people. It argues the bias derives from five "filters" that all published news must "pass through," which combine to systematically distort news coverage.
The first filter, ownership, notes that most major media outlets are owned by large corporations. The second, funding, notes that the outlets derive the majority of their funding from advertising, not readers. Thus, since they are profit-oriented businesses selling a product—readers and audiences—to other businesses (advertisers), the model expects them to publish news that reflects the desires and values of those businesses. In addition, the news media are dependent on government institutions and major businesses with strong biases as sources (the third filter) for much of their information. Flak, the fourth filter, refers to the various pressure groups that attack the media for supposed bias. Norms, the fifth filter, refer to the common conceptions shared by those in the profession of journalism. (Note: in the original text, published in 1988, the fifth filter was "anticommunism". However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, it has been broadened to allow for shifts in public opinion.) The model describes how the media form a decentralized and non-conspiratorial but nonetheless very powerful propaganda system, that is able to mobilize an élite consensus, frame public debate within élite perspectives and at the same time give the appearance of democratic consent.
Chomsky and Herman test their model empirically by picking "paired examples"—pairs of events that were objectively similar except for the alignment of domestic élite interests. They use a number of such examples to attempt to show that in cases where an "official enemy" does something (like murder of a religious official), the press investigates thoroughly and devotes a great amount of coverage to the matter, thus victims of "enemy" states are considered "worthy". But when the domestic government or an ally does the same thing (or worse), the press downplays the story, thus victims of US or US client states are considered "unworthy."
They also test their model against the case that is often held up as the best example of a free and aggressively independent press, the media coverage of the [[Tet Offensive]] during the [[Vietnam War]]. Even in this case, they argue that the press was behaving subserviently to élite interests.
==Academic achievements, awards and honors==
In the spring of 1969, he delivered the [[John Locke Lectures]] at [[Oxford University]]; in January 1970, the [[Bertrand Russell]] Memorial Lecture at [[University of Cambridge]]; in 1972, the [[Nehru]] Memorial Lecture in [[New Delhi]]; in 1977, the Huizinga Lecture in [[Leiden]]; in 1988 the [[Massey Lectures]] at the [[University of Toronto]], titled "Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies"; in 1997, The Davie Memorial Lecture on Academic Freedom in [[Cape Town]],<ref>[http://www.news.uct.ac.za/mondaypaper/archives/?id=4104 Van Zyl Slabbert to present TB Davie Memorial Lecture]</ref> and many others.<ref>[http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/403/ The Current Crisis in the Middle East: About the Lecture]. ''MIT World''.</ref>
Chomsky has received many [[honorary degree|honorary degrees]] from universities around the world, including from the following:
{|
| valign="top" |
<div class="references-small">
*[[University of London]]
*[[University of Chicago]]
*[[Loyola University of Chicago]]
*[[Swarthmore College]]
*[[University of Delhi]]
*[[Bard College]]
*[[University of Massachusetts]]
*[[University of Pennsylvania]]
*[[Georgetown University]]
*[[Amherst College]]
*[[University of Cambridge]]
| valign="top" |
<div class="references-small">
*[[University of Buenos Aires]]
*[[McGill University]]
*[[Universitat Rovira i Virgili]]
*[[Columbia University]]
*[[Villanova University]]
*[[University of Connecticut]]
*[[University of Maine]]
*[[Scuola Normale Superiore]]
*[[University of Western Ontario]]
*[[University of Toronto]]
*[[Harvard University]]
| valign="top" |
<div class="references-small">
*[[Universidad de Chile]]
*[[University of Bologna]]
*[[Universidad de la Frontera]]
*[[University of Calcutta]]
*[[Universidad Nacional de Colombia]]
*[[Vrije Universiteit Brussel]]
*[[Santo Domingo Institute of Technology]]
*[[Uppsala University]]
*[[University of Athens]]
*[[University of Cyprus]]
*[[Commencement at CCSU|Central Connecticut State University]]
</div>
|}
He is a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]], and the [[American Philosophical Society]]. In addition, he is a member of other professional and learned societies in the United States and abroad, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the [[American Psychological Association]], the [[Kyoto Prize]] in Basic Sciences, the [[Helmholtz Medal]], the [[Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award]], the [[Ben Franklin Medal]] in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others.<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/bios/2002----.htm Noam Chomsky, MIT Linguistics Program<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> He is twice winner of The [[Orwell Award]], granted by The National Council of Teachers of English for "Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language" (in 1987 and 1989).<ref>[http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Involved/Volunteer/Appointed%20Groups/Past_Recipients_Orwell_Award.pdf Past Recipients of the NCTE Orwell Award]</ref>
He is a member of the [[Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]] in Department of Social Sciences.<ref>[http://www.sanu.ac.rs/English/members/OdDrClan.htm Department of Social Sciences]. ''Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts''.</ref>
Chomsky is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of [[MIT Harvard Research Journal]].
In 2005, Chomsky received an honorary fellowship from the [[Literary and Historical Society]].
In 2007, Chomsky received The [[Uppsala University]] ([[Sweden]]) Honorary Doctor's degree in commemoration of [[Carolus Linnaeus]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Uppsala University’s Honorary Doctorates in Commemoration of Linnaeus|publisher=[[Uppsala University]]|date=2007-02-13|url=http://info.uu.se/press.nsf/pm/uppsala.universitys.id0AC.html|accessdate=2007-09-04}}</ref>
In February 2008, he received the President's Medal from the [[Literary and Debating Society (NUI, Galway)|Literary and Debating Society]] of the [[National University of Ireland, Galway]].
Chomsky has an [[Erdős number]] of four.
Chomsky was voted the leading living [[public intellectual]] in [[The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll]] conducted by the British magazine [[Prospect (magazine)|''Prospect'']]. He reacted, saying "I don't pay a lot of attention to polls".<ref>
{{cite web
|title=Chomsky named top intellectual: British poll
|publisher=Breitbart.com
|date=2005-10-18
|url=http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/18/051018152652.77esbn1j.html
|accessdate=2007-09-04}}
</ref> In a list compiled by the magazine ''[[New Statesman]]'' in 2006, he was voted seventh in the list of "Heroes of our time".<ref>{{cite web
|last=Cowley
|first=Jason
|title=Heroes of Our Time
|publisher=''[[New Statesman]]''
|date=2006-05-22
|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200605220016
|accessdate=2007-09-04}}</ref>
Actor [[Viggo Mortensen]] with avant-garde guitarist [[Buckethead]] dedicated their 2006 album, called ''[[Pandemoniumfromamerica]]'' to Chomsky.
Valve Software's [[Left 4 Dead 2]] - Dark Carnival campaign contains a hidden achievement centered around "Gnome Chompski", a tongue-in-cheek reference to Chomsky.
==Criticism==
{{Main|Criticism of Noam Chomsky}}
Much Chomsky criticism revolves around his [[Politics of Noam Chomsky|political views]]. His status as an intellectual figure within the [[left wing politics|left wing]] of [[American politics]] has resulted in much criticism from the left and the right.
==Bibliography==
{{Main|Bibliography of Noam Chomsky}}
==Filmography==
* ''[[Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media]]'', Director: Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick (1992)
* ''Last Party 2000'', Director: Rebecca Chaiklin and Donovan Leitch (2001)
* ''Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times'', Director: John Junkerman (2002)
* ''Distorted Morality—America's War On Terror?'', Director: John Junkerman (2003)
* ''Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause'' (TV), Director: Will Pascoe (2003)
* ''[[The Corporation]]'', Directors: Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott; Writer: Joel Bakan (2003)
* ''[[Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land]]'', Directors: Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff (2004)
* [http://www.amazon.com/Power-Dissent-Racism-Discussion-Chomsky/dp/B0001UZIJC ''On Power, Dissent and Racism: A discussion with Noam Chomsky''], Journalist: Nicolas Rossier; Producers: Eli Choukri, Baraka Productions (2004)
* ''Lake of Fire'', Director: Tony Kaye (2006)
* ''American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals'', Director: Richard Hall (2007)
* ''Chomsky & Cie'' Director: Olivier Azam (out in 2008)
* ''[[An Inconvenient Tax]]'', Director: Christopher P. Marshall (out in 2009)
* ''The Money Fix,'' Director: Alan Rosenblith (2009)
==See also==
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[Axiom of categoricity]]
* [[Chomsky hierarchy]]
* [[Chomsky normal form]]
* [[Chomskybot]]
* [[Chomsky-Schützenberger theorem]]
* [[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]]
* [[English studies]]
* [[List of important publications in computer science#Computability|Important publications in computability]]
* [[Intellectual worker]]
* [[Language acquisition]]
* [[Nim Chimpsky]]
* [[Politics of Noam Chomsky]]
* [[Propaganda model]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
</div>
==References==
{{Reflist|3}}
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book
|last=Barsky
|first=Robert F.
|authorlink=Robert Barsky
|title=Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent
|url=http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/welcome.html
|year=1997
|publisher=MIT Press
|location=Massachusetts
|isbn=978-1550222821}}
* {{cite book
|last=Chomsky
|first=Noam
|title=Perspectives on Power
|url=
|year=1996
|publisher=Black Rose
|location=Montréal
|isbn=978-1551640488}}
* {{cite web
|last=Kreisler
|first=Harry
|title=Activism, Anarchism, and Power: Conversation with Noam Chomsky
|work=Conversations with History
|publisher=Institute of International Studies, [[UC Berkeley]]
|date=2002-03-22
|url=http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Chomsky/chomsky-con1.html
|accessdate=2007-09-03}}
{{refend}}
==External links==
{{sisterlinks|wikt=Chomskyan|b=no|s=Author:Noam_Chomsky|n=Interview with US political activist and philosopher Noam Chomsky|v=no}}
* [http://www.chomsky.info/ Noam Chomsky] homepage
* [http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/chomsky.home.html Noam Chomsky] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]
* [http://mit.academia.edu/NoamChomsky/ Noam Chomsky's page on Academia.edu]
*{{worldcat id|id=lccn-n79-104267}}
* {{MathGenealogy|id=82231}}
* {{imdb name|0159008|Noam Chomsky}}
* [http://www.zmag.org/zspace/noamchomsky Noam Chomsky] at [[Z Communications|Zmag]]
* [http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=search&nav=&session=&searchtext=chomsky Talks by Noam Chomsky] at [[Radio4all.net|A-Infos Radio Project]]
* [http://www.paroledechercheurs.net/spip.php?article765 Interview about Human Rights] by scholars (English with French subtitles) - 2009
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=chomsky Chomsky media files] at the [[Internet Archive]]
* [http://anarchismtoday.org/News/topic=12.html Articles] and [http://anarchismtoday.org/DF_Multimedia/categoryby=17.html videos] featuring Noam Chomsky at [http://AnarchismToday.org AnarchismToday.org]
* The Political Economy of the Mass Media [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5730066521787705149&hl=en Part 1] [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2414558054564752058&hl=en Part 2] (March 15, 1989), lecture delivered at the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin
*[http://onebigtorrent.org OneBigTorrent.org] (formerly "Chomsky Torrents") Lots of links to Chomsky-related media
* [http://www.countercurrents.org/chomsky040909.htm Crisis And Hope: Theirs And Ours] by Noam Chomsky, September 4, 2009
* [http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/12/17/noam_chomsky_the_unipolar_moment_and_the_culture_of_imperialism Noam Chomsky: "The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism"] - video report by ''[[Democracy Now!]]''
* {{YouTube|id = DibG5MzMlUM|title = Is the United States of America a leading terrorist state? (Noam Chomsky interview) [HQ]}}
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{{Social and political philosophy}}
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|NAME=Chomsky, Avram Noam
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Chomsky, Noam
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=linguist, psychologist, and activist
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|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[East Oak Lane, Philadelphia]], [[United States]]
|DATE OF DEATH=living
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[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:Massey Lecturers]]
[[Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America]]
[[Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Noam Chomsky]]
[[Category:Propaganda theorists]]
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[[Category:Writers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]
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[[Category:Jewish peace activists]]
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