WikiVidi.com
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian,
social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as "the father of modern linguistics",
Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy
and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is Institute Professor Emeritus
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has worked since 1955,
and is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media.
Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism. Born
to middle-class Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia,
Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City.
At the age of 16 he began studies at the University of Pennsylvania,
taking courses in linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy. From 1951 to 1955 he was appointed
to Harvard University's Society of Fellows,
where he developed the theory of transformational grammar
for which he was awarded his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT,
in 1957 emerging as a significant figure in the field of linguistics
for his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which remodeled the scientific study of language,
while from 1958 to 1959 he was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute
for Advanced Study. He is credited as the creator or co-creator of the universal grammar theory,
the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program.
Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of behaviorism,
being particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner. An outspoken opponent of U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism,
in 1967 Chomsky attracted widespread public attention for his anti-war essay
"The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Associated with the New Left,
he was arrested multiple times for his activism
and placed on President Richard Nixon's Enemies List. While expanding his work in linguistics
over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the Linguistics Wars. In collaboration
with Edward S. Herman,
Chomsky later co-wrote an analysis articulating the propaganda model of media criticism, and worked
to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. However,
his defense of unconditional freedom of speech – including
for Holocaust deniers – generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the early
1980s. Following his retirement from active teaching,
he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the War on Terror
and supporting the Occupy movement. One of the most cited scholars in history,
Chomsky has influenced a broad array of academic fields.
He is widely recognized as a paradigm shifter who helped spark a major revolution in the human
sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework
for the study of language and the mind. In addition to his continued scholarly research,
he remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, neoliberalism
and contemporary state capitalism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mainstream news media.
His ideas have proved highly significant within the anti-capitalist
and anti-imperialist movements, but have also drawn criticism,
with some accusing Chomsky of anti-Americanism.
Childhood: 1928–45
Avram Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928,
in the East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was William "Zev"
Chomsky, an Ashkenazi Jew originally from Ukraine who had fled to the United States in 1913.
Having studied at Johns Hopkins University, William went on
to become school principal of the Congregation Mikveh Israel religious school,
and in 1924 was appointed to the faculty at Gratz College in Philadelphia.
Chomsky's mother was the Belarusian-born Elsie Simonofsky, a teacher
and activist whom William had met while working at Mikveh Israel.
Noam was the Chomsky family's first child. His younger brother, David Eli Chomsky,
was born five years later. The brothers were close,
although David was more easygoing while Noam could be very competitive. Chomsky
and his brother were raised Jewish, being taught Hebrew
and regularly discussing the political theories of Zionism; the family was particularly influenced
by the Left Zionist writings of Ahad Ha'am. As a Jew, Chomsky faced anti-semitism as a child,
particularly from the Irish and German communities living in Philadelphia.
Chomsky described his parents as "normal Roosevelt Democrats"
who had a center-left position on the political spectrum; however, he was exposed
to far-left politics through other members of the family,
a number of whom were socialists involved in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
He was substantially influenced by his uncle who owned a newspaper stand in New York City,
where Jewish leftists came to debate the issues of the day. Whenever visiting his uncle,
Chomsky frequented left-wing and anarchist bookstores in the city,
voraciously reading political literature. He later described his discovery of anarchism as
"a lucky accident", because it allowed him to become critical of other far-left ideologies,
namely Stalinism and other forms of Marxism–Leninism. Chomsky's primary education was
at Oak Lane Country Day School,
an independent Deweyite institution that focused on allowing its pupils
to pursue their own interests in a non-competitive atmosphere. It was here, at the age of 10,
that he wrote his first article, on the spread of fascism, following the fall of Barcelona
to Francisco Franco's fascist army in the Spanish Civil War. At the age of 12, Chomsky moved on
to secondary education at Central High School, where he joined various clubs and societies
and excelled academically, but was troubled by the hierarchical
and regimented method of teaching used there. From the age of 12 or 13, he identified more fully
with anarchist politics.
Thank you
WikiVidi.com
Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE below.
Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE below.
