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What was Noam Chomsky’s early life like?

How did noam chomsky influence the field of linguistics, what are noam chomsky’s politics.

Noam Chomsky

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Noam Chomsky was raised in Philadelphia and attended an experimental elementary school where he could freely explore his intellectual interests. At age 10 he wrote a school newspaper editorial bemoaning the rise of fascism in Europe. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania at age 16 and developed an interest in structural linguistics. 

Noam Chomsky’s linguistic research in the 1950s aimed to understand the tools and means through which children acquire language. He proposed a system of principles and parameters that suggested a child’s innate understanding of syntax and semantics. Although controversial among linguists, Chomsky’s theorization revolutionized and reoriented academic approaches to language.

Noam Chomsky, an anarcho-syndicalist, orients his politics around maximizing communal decision-making and cooperative activity for all. Chomsky views the accurate provision of information to the public as necessary for societal engagement, and he is deeply critical of intellectuals and journalists who conceal information in order to protect cultural and economic elites. 

Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928, Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , U.S.) is an American theoretical linguist whose work from the 1950s revolutionized the field of linguistics by treating language as a uniquely human, biologically based cognitive capacity. Through his contributions to linguistics and related fields, including cognitive psychology and the philosophies of mind and language , Chomsky helped to initiate and sustain what came to be known as the “cognitive revolution.” Chomsky also gained a worldwide following as a political dissident for his analyses of the pernicious influence of economic elites on U.S. domestic politics, foreign policy , and intellectual culture .

Born into a middle-class Jewish family, Chomsky attended an experimental elementary school in which he was encouraged to develop his own interests and talents through self-directed learning. When he was 10 years old, he wrote an editorial for his school newspaper lamenting the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism in Europe. His research then and during the next few years was thorough enough to serve decades later as the basis of “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” (1969), Chomsky’s critical review of a study of the period by the historian Gabriel Jackson.

When he was 13 years old, Chomsky began taking trips by himself to New York City , where he found books for his voracious reading habit and made contact with a thriving working-class Jewish intellectual community . Discussion enriched and confirmed the beliefs that would underlie his political views throughout his life: that all people are capable of comprehending political and economic issues and making their own decisions on that basis; that all people need and derive satisfaction from acting freely and creatively and from associating with others; and that authority—whether political, economic, or religious—that cannot meet a strong test of rational justification is illegitimate . According to Chomsky’s anarchosyndicalism, or libertarian socialism , the best form of political organization is one in which all people have a maximal opportunity to engage in cooperative activity with others and to take part in all decisions of the community that affect them.

In 1945, at the age of 16, Chomsky entered the University of Pennsylvania but found little to interest him. After two years he considered leaving the university to pursue his political interests, perhaps by living on a kibbutz . He changed his mind, however, after meeting the linguist Zellig S. Harris , one of the American founders of structural linguistics, whose political convictions were similar to Chomsky’s. Chomsky took graduate courses with Harris and, at Harris’s recommendation, studied philosophy with Nelson Goodman and Nathan Salmon and mathematics with Nathan Fine, who was then teaching at Harvard University . In his 1951 master’s thesis, The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew , and especially in The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory ( LSLT ), written while he was a junior fellow at Harvard (1951–55) and published in part in 1975, Chomsky adopted aspects of Harris’s approach to the study of language and of Goodman’s views on formal systems and the philosophy of science and transformed them into something novel.

Whereas Goodman assumed that the mind at birth is largely a tabula rasa (blank slate) and that language learning in children is essentially a conditioned response to linguistic stimuli, Chomsky held that the basic principles of all languages, as well as the basic range of concepts they are used to express, are innately represented in the human mind and that language learning consists of the unconscious construction of a grammar from these principles in accordance with cues drawn from the child’s linguistic environment . Whereas Harris thought of the study of language as the taxonomic classification of “data,” Chomsky held that it is the discovery, through the application of formal systems, of the innate principles that make possible the swift acquisition of language by children and the ordinary use of language by children and adults alike. And whereas Goodman believed that linguistic behaviour is regular and caused (in the sense of being a specific response to specific stimuli), Chomsky argued that it is incited by social context and discourse context but essentially uncaused—enabled by a distinct set of innate principles but innovative, or “creative.” It is for this reason that Chomsky believed that it is unlikely that there will ever be a full-fledged science of linguistic behaviour. As in the view of the 17th-century French philosopher Réne Descartes , according to Chomsky, the use of language is due to a “creative principle,” not a causal one.

Harris ignored Chomsky’s work, and Goodman—when he realized that Chomsky would not accept his behaviourism —denounced it. Their reactions, with some variations, were shared by a large majority of linguists, philosophers, and psychologists. Although some linguists and psychologists eventually came to accept Chomsky’s basic assumptions regarding language and the mind, most philosophers continued to resist them.

Chomsky received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955 after submitting one chapter of LSLT as a doctoral dissertation ( Transformational Analysis ). In 1956 he was appointed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to a teaching position that required him to spend half his time on a machine translation project, though he was openly skeptical of its prospects for success (he told the director of the translation laboratory that the project was of “no intellectual interest and was also pointless”). Impressed with his book Syntactic Structures (1957), a revised version of a series of lectures he gave to MIT undergraduates, the university asked Chomsky and his colleague Morris Halle to establish a new graduate program in linguistics, which soon attracted several outstanding scholars, including Robert Lees, Jerry Fodor, Jerold Katz, and Paul Postal.

Chomsky’s 1959 review of Verbal Behavior , by B.F. Skinner , the dean of American behaviourism , came to be regarded as the definitive refutation of behaviourist accounts of language learning. Starting in the mid-1960s, with the publication of Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) and Cartesian Linguistics (1966), Chomsky’s approach to the study of language and mind gained wider acceptance within linguistics, though there were many theoretical variations within the paradigm . Chomsky was appointed full professor at MIT in 1961, Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics in 1966, and Institute Professor in 1976. He retired as professor emeritus in 2002.

Noam Chomsky

Famed scholar Noam Chomsky has made groundbreaking contributions to linguistics and offered penetrating critiques of political systems.

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1928-present

• Who Is Noam Chomsky?

An intellectual prodigy, Noam Chomsky earned a doctorate degree in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 1955, he has been a professor at MIT and has produced groundbreaking, controversial theories on human linguistic capacity. Chomsky is widely published, both on topics in his field and on issues of dissent and U.S. foreign policy.

Quick Facts

Young noam chomsky, linguistic revolutions, politics and controversies, family and health.

FULL NAME: Avram Noam Chomsky BORN: December 7, 1928 BIRTHPLACE: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania SPOUSES: Carol Chomsky (1949-2008) and Valeria Wasserman (2014-present) CHILDREN: Aviva, Diane, and Harry ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Born in Philadelphia on December 7, 1928, Avram Noam Chomsky was a brilliant child. His curiosities and intellect were kindled greatly by his early experiences, including the weight of America’s Great Depression. He was raised with a younger brother, David, and although their family was middle class, Chomsky witnessed injustices all around him. One of his earliest memories consisted of watching security officers beat women strikers outside of a textile plant.

His mother, Elsie, was active in the radical politics of the 1930s. His father, William, a Russian Jewish immigrant like his mother, was a respected professor of Hebrew at Gratz College, an institution for teacher’s training. At age 10, while attending a progressive school that emphasized student self-actualization, Noam wrote an editorial on the rise of fascism in Europe after the Spanish Civil War for his school newspaper. Rather amazingly, his story was substantially researched enough to be the basis for a later essay he presented at New York University.

By age 13, Chomsky was traveling from Philadelphia to New York City, spending much of his time listening to the disparate perspectives hashed out among adults over cigarettes and magazines at his uncle’s newsstand at the back of a 72 nd Street subway exit. Chomsky greatly admired his uncle, a man of little formal education but someone who was wildly smart about the world around him. Chomsky’s current political views spring from this type of lived-experience stance, positing that all people can understand politics and economics and make their own decisions, and that authority ought to be tested before being deemed legitimate and worthy of power.

Just as World War II was coming to a close, Chomsky began his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He found little use for his classes until he met Zellig S. Harris, an American scholar touted for discovering structural linguistics (breaking language down into distinct parts or levels). Chomsky was moved by what he felt language could reveal about society. Harris was moved by Chomsky’s great potential and did much to advance the young man’s undergraduate studies, with Chomsky receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nontraditional modes of study.

Harris introduced Chomsky to Harvard mathematician Nathan Fine and philosophers Nelson Goodman and W. V. Quine. Although an industrious student of Goodman’s, Chomsky drastically disagreed with his approach. Goodman believed the human mind was a blank slate, whereas Chomsky believed the basic concepts of language were innate in every human’s mind and then only influenced by one’s syntactical environment. His 1951 master’s thesis was titled “The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew.”

For a short time, between Chomsky’s master’s and doctoral studies, he and his wife Carol lived on a kibbutz in Israel. When they returned, Chomsky continued at the University of Pennsylvania and executed some of his research and writing at Harvard University. His dissertation eventually explored several ideas that he soon laid out in one of his best-known books on linguistics, Syntactic Structures (1957).

In 1955, the professorial staff at Massachusetts Institute of Technology invited Chomsky to join their ranks. Now a professor emeritus, he worked in the school’s Department of Linguistics & Philosophy for half a century before retiring from active teaching in 2005.

During his career as a professor, Chomsky introduced transformational grammar to the linguistics field. His theory asserts that languages are innate and that the differences we see are only due to parameters developed over time in our brains, helping to explain why children are able to learn different languages more easily than adults.

One of his most famous contributions to linguistics is what his contemporaries have called the Chomsky Hierarchy, a division of grammar into groups, moving up or down in their expressive abilities. These ideas have had huge ramifications in fields such as modern psychology and philosophy, both answering and raising questions about human nature and how we process information.

In addition to his work at MIT, Chomasky has also been a visiting professor or lectured at a range of other universities, including Columbia; University of California, Los Angeles; Princeton; and Cambridge. He holds honorary degrees from many other institutions throughout the world.

Chomsky’s ideas have never been relegated to language alone. Weaving between the world of academia and popular culture, Chomsky has also gained a reputation for his often radical political views, which he describes as “libertarian socialist,” some of which have been seen as controversial and highly open to debate.

In 1967, The New York Review of Books published his essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals.” In light of the Vietnam War, which Chomsky adamantly opposed, he addressed what he saw as a disgracefully resigned intellectual community, of which he was an embarrassed member, with the hope of igniting his peers into deeper thought and action.

In a 1977 article Chomsky co-authored with Edward S. Herman in The Nation , he questioned the credibility of the reporting of atrocities under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and suggested some reports were propaganda to “place the role of the United States in a more favorable light.” Decades later, Chomsky acknowledged in the 1993 documentary Manufacturing Consent “the great act of genocide in the modern period is Pol Pot, 1975 through 1978.”

In 1979, Chomsky signed a petition in support of the free-speech rights of Robert Faurisson, a French lecturer who denied the existence of the gas chambers used in Nazi concentration camps. As a result, Chomsky found himself in the middle of a heated controversy. He asserted that his views are “diametrically opposed” to Faurisson’s conclusions and his intent was to support Faurisson’s civil liberties, not his Holocaust denial. The incident haunted Chomsky for decades, however, and his reputation in France, in particular, was damaged for some time afterward.

Chomsky also sparked controversy with 9-11: Was There an Alternative? , his 2002 collection of essays which analyzes the September 11 attacks on the United States, the impact of American foreign policy, and media control. In the book, Chomsky denounces the “horrifying atrocities” of the attacks but is critical of the United States’ use of power, calling it “a leading terrorist state.” The book became a bestseller, denounced by conservative critics as a distortion of American history while praised by supporters as offering an honest analysis of events leading to 9-11 that weren’t being reported by the mainstream media.

Despite his often controversial viewpoints, Chomsky remains a highly respected and sought-after thinker who has continued to author new books, contribute to a wide variety of journals, and remain active on the lecture circuit. Over the course of his career, Chomsky has also amassed a wealth of academic and humanitarian awards, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, and the humanitarian Sydney Peace Prize.

The Essential Chomsky

Chomsky’s writings on linguistics include Current Issues in Linguistic Theor y (1964), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965), The Sound Pattern of English (with Morris Halle, 1968), Language and Mind (1972), Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar (1972), and Knowledge of Language (1986).

He has also written many books addressing politics. They include American Power and the New Mandarins (1969), Peace in the Middle East? (1974), Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (with Edward S. Herman, 1988), Profit over People (1998), Rogue States (2000), Hegemony or Survival (2003), Gaza in Crisis (with Ilan Pappé, 2010), and most recently, On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare (2013).

In 1949, Chomsky married educational specialist Carol Schatz, a woman he had known since childhood. The relationship lasted for 59 years until she died from cancer in 2008. They had three children together: daughters Aviva and Diane and a son named Henry.

In 2014, at age 85, Chomsky remarried, to Valeria Wasserman.

In June 2024, Valeria revealed Chomsky was hospitalized in Brazil as he continues to recover from a massive stroke he suffered in the previous June. She said he has difficulty speaking and receives daily visits from a neurologist, speech therapist, and lung specialist.

• The deceit and distortion surrounding the American invasion of Vietnam is by now so familiar that it has lost its power to shock.
• Some of my earliest memories, which are very vivid, are of people selling rags at our door, of violent police strikebreaking, and other Depression scenes. Whatever the reasons may be, I was very much affected by events of the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War, for example, though I was barely literate.
• Some of the most moving experiences I’ve had are just in Black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights. Just asking for the congressional amendments during the Civil War, asking them to be implemented.

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Noam Chomsky on the Purpose of Education

By maria popova.

Despite the slow pace and the cheesy AfterEffects animated typography, the video is a treasure trove of insight on everything from the role of technology to the pitfalls of policy.

On the industrialization of education, echoing Sir Ken Robinson’s admonition about its effects on creativity:

There have been many measures taken to try to turn the educational system towards more control, more indoctrination, more vocational training, imposing a debt, which traps students and young people into a life of conformity… That’s the exact opposite of [what] traditionally comes out of The Enlightenment. And there’s a constant struggle between those. In the colleges, in the schools, do you train for passing tests, or do you train for creative inquiry?”

On technology:

Technology is basically neutral. It’s kind of like a hammer. The hammer doesn’t care whether you use it to build a house, or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody’s skull.”

On the importance of having a framework for what matters when engaging with the the information economy — or, one might say, the essence of what great curation should be:

You can’t pursue any kind of inquiry without a relatively clear framework that’s directing your search and helping you choose what’s significant and what isn’t… If you don’t have some sort of a framework for what matters — always, of course, with the provisor that you’re willing to question it if it seems to be going in the wrong direction — if you don’t have that, exploring the Internet is just picking out the random factoids that don’t mean anything… You have to know how to evaluate, interpret, and understand… The person who wins the Nobel Prize is not the person who read the most journal articles and took the most notes on them. It’s the person who knew what to look for. And cultivating that capacity to seek what’s significant, always willing to question whether you’re on the right track — that’s what education is going to be about, whether it’s using computers and the Internet, or pencil and paper, or books.”

On influence and creating the right micro-culture to foster creativity:

It’s the way cultural progress takes place generally. Classical artists, for example, came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed over long periods, with master artisans and others, and sometimes, you can rise on their shoulders and create new marvelous things. But it doesn’t come from nowhere. If there isn’t a lively cultural and educational system, which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration, independence of thought, willingness to cross frontiers, to challenge accepted beliefs… if you don’t have that, you’re not going to get the technology that could lead to economic gains.”

On the whimsy of inquiry :

Passing tests doesn’t begin to compare with searching and inquiring and pursuing topics that engage us and excite us. That’s far more significant than passing tests and, in fact, if that’s the kind of educational career you’re given the opportunity to pursue, you will remember what you discovered.”

Many of these insights, and more, are explored in depth in these 7 essential books on education .

↬ @openculture

— Published March 13, 2012 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/03/13/noam-chomsky-on-the-purpose-of-education/ —

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Noam Chomsky on Democracy and Education in the 21st Century and Beyond

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Also see: Democracy and Education in the 21st Century: Part 1, Daniel Falcone Interviews Noam Chomsky, June 2009

Daniel Falcone for Truthout: I wanted to ask you some questions about education in the 21st century.

Chomsky: Not sure the topic exists.

Falcone: Yes, right. Well before I would go into discussing the 21st century, can you comment on this country’s history with education, and what tradition do you think we have grown out of in terms of education?

Chomsky: That’s an interesting question. The US was kind of a pioneer in mass public education. Actually, this here is land-grant university which is part of the big 19th-century expansion of our education through federal grant. And most of them are out in the West, but this is one. And also, just-for-children mass public education, which is a pretty good thing. It wasn’t a major contribution, but it had qualifications. For one thing, it was partly concerned with taking a country of independent farmers, many of them pretty radical. You go back to the late 19th century, the Farmer’s Alliance was coming out of Texas and was the most radical popular Democratic organization anywhere in history, I think. It’s hard to believe if you look at Texas today.

And these were independent farmers. They stick up for their rights – they didn’t want to be slaves. And they had to be driven into factories and turned into tools for someone else. There’s a lot of resistance to it. So a lot of public education was, in fact, concerned with trying to teach independent people to become workers in an industrial system.

And there was more to it than that. Actually, Ralph Waldo Emerson commented on it. He said something like this: he hears a lot of political leaders saying that we have to have mass public education. And the reason is that millions of people are getting the vote, and we have to educate them to keep them from our throats. In other words, we have to train them in obedience and servility, so they’re not going to think through the way the world works and come after our throats.

So, it’s kind of a mixture. There’s a lot of good things about it, but there were also, you know, the property class. The people who concentrate wealth don’t do things just out of the goodness of their hearts for the most part, but in order to maintain their position of dominance and then extend their power. And it’s been kind of that battle all the way through.

Right now, we happen to be in a general period of regression, not just in education. A lot of what’s happening is sort of backlash to the 60s; the 60s were a democratizing period. And the society became a lot more civilized and there was a lot of concern about education across the spectrum – liberals, conservatives and bipartisan. It’s kind of interesting to read the liberal literature in the 70s, but there was concern about what they called, at the liberal end, “the failures of the institutions responsible for indoctrinating the young.” That’s the phrase that was used, which expresses the liberal view quite accurately. You got to keep them from our throats. So the indoctrination of the young wasn’t working properly. That was actually Samuel Huntington, professor of government at Harvard, kind of a liberal stalwart. And he co-authored a book-length report called The Crisis of Democracy . There was something that had to be done to increase indoctrination, to beat back the democratizing wave. The economy was sharply modified and went through a liberal period, with radical inequality, stagnation, financial institutions, all that stuff. Student debt started to skyrocket, which is quite important. But that’s a technique of indoctrination in itself. It’s never been studied. Important things usually never get studied; it’s just putting together the bits of information about it. One can at least be suspicious that skyrocketing student debt is a device of indoctrination. It’s very hard to imagine that there’s any economic reason for it. Other countries’ education is free, like Mexico’s, and that is a poor country.

Finland’s, which has the best educational system in the world, by the records at least, is free. Germany’s is free. The United States in the 1950s was a much poorer country. But education was basically free: the GI Bill and so on. So there’s no real economic reason for high-priced higher education and skyrocketing student debt. There are a lot of factors. And one of them, probably, is just that students are trapped.

The other is what’s happening to teachers like you. They’re turning into adjuncts, temporary workers who have no rights, you know. I don’t have to tell you what it’s like, you can tell me.

But the more you can get the graduate students, temporary workers, two-tier payment, the more people you have under control – and all of that’s been going on. And now it’s institutionalized with No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top; teach to the test – worst possible way of teaching. But it is a disciplinary technique. Schools are designed to teach the test. You don’t have to worry about students thinking for themselves, challenging, raising questions. And you see it down to the lowest level of detail. I give a lot of talks in communities and places where people are concerned about education and I’ve had teachers come up to me and say afterwards, you know, I teach sixth grade. A little girl came up after class and said she was interested in something that came up in class, and wanted to know how to look into it. And I tell her, you can’t do it; you got to study for the test. Your future depends on it; my salary depends on it.

And that’s happening all over. And it has the obvious technique of dumbing down the population, and also controlling them. And it’s bipartisan. The Obama administration is pushing it. Also, an effort to kill the schools – the charter school movement vouchers, all this kind of stuff is nothing but an effort to destroy the public education system. It claims that it gives the parents choices, but that’s ridiculous.

For most people, they can’t make the choices; there are not any. It’s like saying everyone has a choice to become a millionaire. You do, in a way: there’s no law against it.

Falcone: You have indicated in some of your writings the effects of Taylorism – a management method that breaks tasks down into small parts to increase efficiency – as a form of on-job control. Does our educational system foster a form of on-job control?

Chomsky: Off-job control. Actually, the term is sometimes even used – Taylorism – by the business press. Taylorism gives on-job control, but we have to be careful to have off-job control and there are a lot of devices for that: education is one. But advertising is another. The advertising industry is a huge industry, and anyone with their eyes open can see what it’s for. First of all, the existence of the advertising industry is a sign of the unwillingness to let markets function. If you had markets, you wouldn’t have advertising. Like, if somebody has something to sell, they say what it is and you buy it if you want. But when you have oligopolies, they want to stop price wars. They have to have product differentiation, and you got to turn to deluding people into thinking you should buy this rather than that. Or just getting them to consume – if you can get them to consume, they’re trapped, you know.

It starts with the infant, but now there’s a huge part of the advertising industry which is designed to capture children. And it’s destroying childhood. Anyone who has any experience with children can see this. It’s literally destroying childhood. Kids don’t know how to play. They can’t go out and, you know, like when you were a kid or when I was a kid, you have a Saturday afternoon free. You go out to a field and you’re finding a bunch of other kids and play ball or something. You can’t do anything like that. It’s got to be organized by adults, or else you’re at home with your gadgets, your video games.

But the idea of going out just to play with all the creative challenge, those insights: that’s gone. And it’s done consciously to trap children from infancy and then to turn them into consumer addicts. And that means you’re out for yourself. You got the Ayn Rand kind of sociopathic behavior, which comes straight out of the consumer culture. Consumer culture means going out for myself; I don’t give a damn about anyone else. I think it’s really destroying society in a lot of ways. And education is part of it.

Falcone: Do we as a nation have a reason to fear an assault on public education and the complete privatization of education?

Chomsky: It’s part of the way of controlling and dumbing down the population, and that’s important. Much has to do with the catastrophe that’s looming, mainly environmental catastrophe. It’s very serious. It’s not generations from now; it’s your children and your grandchildren. And the public is pretty close to the scientific consensus. If you look at polls, it will say it’s a serious problem; we’ve got to do something about it. Government doesn’t want to, and the corporate sector not only doesn’t want to, it’s strongly opposed to it. So now, take for example ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. It’s corporate funded, the Koch brothers and those guys. It’s an organization which designs legislation for states, for state legislators. And they’ve got plenty of clout, so they can get a lot of it through. Now they have a new program, which sounds very pretty on the surface. It’s designed to increase “critical thinking.” And the way you increase critical thinking is by having “balanced education.” “Balanced education” means that if you teach kids something about the climate, you also have to teach them climate change denial. It’s like teaching evolution science, but also creation science, so that you have “critical thinking.”

All of this is a way of turning the population into a bunch of imbeciles. That’s really serious. I mean, it’s life and death at this point, not just making society worse.

Falcone: What do you think are important attributes of a school? What constitutes a good school?

Chomsky: Well, I’ll describe the school I went to when I was kid. It was a school run on Deweyite lines, an experimental school run by Temple University, which had a very good education department, a progressive education department. I was in it from about 2 to 12. Then I went to an academic high school – Central High in Philadelphia. You may know it. It was a boy’s school, probably not now.

Falcone: Yeah, co-ed now.

Chomsky: Which were all college- oriented kids. So, until I got to Central High, I literally didn’t know I was a good student, because the question never came up.

Everybody was a good student. The kids were just encouraged to do what they like to do and what was best, and there was a structure; there was a program. It’s not you ran around doing anything you felt like. I skipped a grade, but I didn’t pay any attention and no one else paid any attention. Just that I was the smallest kid in the class, but the idea that somebody is a good student; somebody is not a good student – it just never arose. There were tests, but they just gave information about what’s going on. This is something we ought to be doing better.

The kids weren’t ranked; there were no grades. There’s a lot of cooperative work and cooperative projects and they encouraged us. You know, study, challenging questions, and it was extremely successful. I remember everything very well. I went into the academic high school and it’s kind of like a black hole. I was able to get all As and a scholarship to go into college. I might well not have gone, except for what I learned on my own.

And that’s what school is. And there’s no reason why it can’t be done everywhere. Actually, just today, I had lunch with a faculty member here I’ve known for many years who works on designing educational programs for high schools, science programs. He’s describing the programs, and they are programs like one of the programs that they’re trying to get high schools to use around the world, incidentally – not just here. So he described one in which it starts by asking the question, “How can mosquitoes fly in the rain?” And then, but why is there a problem? Well, you study the force of the raindrop hitting a mosquito – it’s like a person being hit by a locomotive.

So how come they don’t get smashed to pieces? And what makes them stay up? And then a million other questions come. You start looking into these questions. You start learning physics, biology, all kinds of things. And there are things that the students can do so that they can ask questions, and pursue them, and do experiments and so on. I mean, that’s education. It’s not just you learned how a mosquito flies in the rain, but you learn how to be creative and why it’s exciting to learn things and create things and make up new things. And that can be done from kindergarten on.

For example, one kindergarten program, it was described in Science Magazine: they had a series on why the educational system is destroying interest. There’s a kindergarten program where the kids were given dishes which had in them a bunch of objects and pebbles, shells, seeds and others. They had a problem, which was to figure out which ones were the seeds. So they had a scientific conference, and kids get together and figure out ways, things you can try. Teacher is in the background guiding it, but mostly independent. Finally, they figured out what the seeds were. At that point, each kid was given a magnifying glass and the teacher opened the seeds and took a look inside. They could find the embryo that makes it grow. Those kids not only learned some biology; they also learned that it’s fun to understand things and to discover things. And that’s what matters. It doesn’t matter how much you learn in school; it’s whether you learn how to go on and do things by yourself. And that can be done at any level. I know graduate school is kind of like, automatic; that’s all you do at a good graduate school, but like here in graduate school, you don’t have grades. They don’t pay any attention to that.

But it can be done in kindergarten. And that’s how good schools are made; that’s where everything is possible.

Falcone: And these are natural impulses?

Chomsky: Kids are naturally creative, and of course, you don’t have to beat it out of them. That’s why they’re asking, “Why?” all the time.

Falcone: A fancy suburban high school that is rich in resources: sometimes they’re still faced with apathy and indoctrination, a narrow ideological spectrum. Is this a cultural condition in your view, or is this inherent in our school system?

Chomsky: It was true even in the school that I went to in Philadelphia, in a day of much less corporate control of society. I don’t think it’s inherent in anything. They can perfectly well have schools that have programs like the kinds I was just talking about. But not just in science – in every other area as well … Take American history. I have a friend who was a school teacher in Lexington, where I live, who taught sixth grade. She was a really good teacher, very successful. But she described to me once how she ran a section on the American Revolution. And a couple of weeks before the section was going to begin, she started imposing arbitrary restrictions on the class. Like making the kids do things that they didn’t like and that didn’t make any sense.

And finally after a while, they got pretty resentful and they started getting together to get her to stop doing it somehow. But when it got to that point, she introduced the section on the American Revolution, okay? They understood what was going on.

Falcone: That’s clever.

Chomsky : There’s no level where you can’t do things like that if you’re a teacher who has control of what you’re doing. Then if there’s some respect for teaching, so you’re allowed to have control. But that’s what’s being destroyed: teachers’ control of the classroom, like worker control of the shop floor. You can’t allow that; you have to have Taylorism.

Control from above, control by the administrators. No respect for the working person, whether it’s a teacher or machinist. And it’s amazing how this is done. I mean, there’s a great study done by faculty members here. David Noble, who worked on the history of technology. He studied the machine tool industry in the 1950s and 60s. There was a move towards computer control of machines. Numerical control of machine process, big advance.

Noble did a detailed study and it’s very striking how it worked. There were two tasks that could be followed. One was letting skilled machinists run the system with their detailed knowledge and ability to fix things that went wrong and make up new ideas and so on. The other was let the managers run it. And there were studies, and the ones where the machinists ran it were successful and profitable and everything else, but they picked the opposite way. And they picked it for a very simple reason: they got disciplined workers. Even if that overcomes profit, it’s much more important to have a disciplined, obedient workforce. Not workers who can do things for themselves, for pretty obvious reasons. If they can do things for themselves, they’re pretty soon going to ask, why do we need bosses? And then you’re in trouble. Kind of like sit-down strikes, that’s why they’re so dangerous. This happened, and that’s the same in schools.

You can’t let teachers control the classroom. That’s teaching to test; then the teachers are disciplined. They do what you tell them. Their salaries depend on it; their jobs depend on it. They become sociopaths like everyone else. And you have a society where it’s only, “Look after me; I’ll forget everyone else.” And then they can get rid of Social Security and get rid of Medicare. And why should I pay for the kid across the street going to school; my kid is not going to school. Why should I care about disabled widows? Etcetera.

Falcone: And these are bipartisan efforts?

Chomsky: Oh, it’s bipartisan. Obama suggested cutting back on Social Security. But then they pretend to be surprised at the outcomes. Like there was a really comical story in The New York Times the other day on the front page. Part of the new Medicaid program is having private companies contract to give care for the elderly and the disabled and so on. And there was a study that looked into it and found that what they’re doing is having yoga classes for well-off people, and all kind of stuff that makes money. And how come the private companies are trying to make money instead of help people? I mean, did you ever think for a second, is a private company in business in order to help people or in order to make money?

Falcone: How about the arts and music? We see cutting of …

Chomsky: It cuts creativity, it cuts the independence. I mean, that’s a phase in which kids, in fact grown-ups, express themselves. You know, they learn about themselves. It’s important to cut that back.

I grew up in the Depression. My family was a little, I’ll say employed working class, but a lot of them never went to school in the first grade, but [were familiar with] very high culture. The plays of Shakespeare in the park, the WPA performances, concerts, and it’s just part of life. The union had worker education programs and cultural programs. And high culture was just part of life. Actually, if you’re interested, there’s a detailed scholarly study of working class people in England in the 19th century and what they were reading, and it’s pretty fabulous. It turns out that they didn’t go to school, mostly. But they had quite a high level of culture. They were reading contemporary literature and classics. In fact, the author concludes finally that they were probably more educated than aristocrats.

Chomsky's Theory

July 20, 2023

Explore Chomsky's revolutionary theories on language acquisition, universal grammar, and cognitive science. Dive into the mind of a linguistic pioneer.

Main, P (2023, July 20). Chomsky's Theory. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/chomskys-theory

What was Chomsky's Theory?

The theories proposed by Noam Chomsky have significantly shaped our understanding of language acquisition and universal grammar. Chomsky's perspective suggests that the human mind is pre-equipped with a set of linguistic constraints, often referred to as "universal grammar." This framework provides a common structural foundation across all languages, despite their apparent differences.

One of the intriguing aspects of language acquisition that Chomsky explored is the seemingly effortless way in which children grasp grammatical rules and structures.

This stands in stark contrast to the behaviorist perspective , which places heavy emphasis on external stimuli and reinforcement in language learning. Instead, Chomsky proposed the existence of an internal language acquisition mechanism within the human brain.

This mechanism enables children to rapidly grasp complex grammatical structures, even without explicit instruction or sufficient language input.

Chomsky's theory was revolutionary in that it challenged the prevailing belief that language development was solely influenced by environmental factors.

He suggested that children are born with an innate understanding of grammar, which provides a framework for language acquisition . Despite the surface-level variations among languages, Chomsky argued that all human languages share underlying syntactic categories and grammatical features.

According to a study by Lisa Pearl, the "Universal Grammar + statistics" (UG+stats) perspective has been instrumental in understanding the development of morphology and syntax knowledge. This perspective combines the principles of Universal Grammar with statistical learning approaches to explain how children acquire language.

For instance, consider the way a child learns to form plurals in English. Despite the irregularities and exceptions in the language, most children quickly grasp that adding an "s" or "es" to a noun usually indicates more than one. This rapid understanding of a complex rule suggests the existence of an internal mechanism, as proposed by Chomsky.

As linguist Steven Pinker once said, "Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our brains." This quote encapsulates the essence of Chomsky's theory, emphasizing the biological and cognitive aspects of language.

Interestingly, a recent statistic shows that over 60% of linguists incorporate aspects of Chomsky's theory into their research, highlighting its ongoing relevance and influence.

Key insights from Chomsky's theory include:

• The concept of "universal grammar" suggests a common structural basis for all languages.
• Chomsky proposed an internal language acquisition mechanism within the human brain, enabling rapid and effortless learning of grammatical structures.
• Despite surface-level variations, all human languages share underlying syntactic categories and grammatical features, according to Chomsky's theory.

The Phases of Chomsky's Work

Chomsky's work in the field of linguistics can be understood through different phases that he went through in developing and refining his theories.

The first phase introduced the idea of generative grammar , which proposed that the process of generating and understanding sentences could be described using rules. Chomsky distinguished between phrase structure rules, which determine the basic structure of sentences, and transformations, which manipulate sentence structures to produce different meanings.

This model aimed to capture the underlying knowledge and rules that speakers possess to generate and interpret an infinite number of grammatically correct sentences.

The second phase, known as the Aspects Model, introduced the concepts of deep structure and surface structure. Deep structure represents the underlying meaning and syntactic structure of a sentence, while surface structure refers to the specific arrangement of words in a sentence. Chomsky argued that the transformational processes between deep and surface structure could account for the variation observed in language use.

The final phase, known as the Government and Binding Model, introduced the ideas of principles and parameters. Chomsky proposed that there are universal principles that govern the structure of all human languages, while specific parameters can vary across different languages.

This model aimed to capture the innate knowledge and constraints that guide language acquisition and enable the processing of language . It emphasized the role of government, which refers to the relationship between heads and their dependents in a sentence.

Throughout these phases, Chomsky's theories have sought to uncover the underlying structures and principles that govern language, highlighting the innate and cognitive aspects of language acquisition and processing. This has greatly influenced the field of linguistics and our understanding of the human language capacity .

Chomsky's Universal Grammar: A Deep Dive

The theory of Universal Grammar, as proposed by Chomsky, posits that certain grammatical structures and rules are innate to all human languages. This concept, despite the apparent differences between languages, suggests a deep and underlying structure that is universal across all languages.

Chomsky's theory distinguishes between surface structure and deep structure in language. The surface structure refers to the specific arrangement of words in a sentence, while the deep structure represents the underlying meaning and syntactic structure.

Transformations occur between these two levels, producing the variation observed in language use.

A key aspect of Chomsky's theory is the concept of principles and parameters. Universal Grammar consists of universal principles that govern the structure of all languages . These principles are innate and provide a foundation for language acquisition.

Parameters, on the other hand, are language-specific settings that vary across different languages, allowing for the diversity and variation observed in grammatical structures across languages.

Chomsky's Universal Grammar theory suggests that all humans are born with an innate capacity for language acquisition. This capacity is made possible by the knowledge of these innate grammatical structures and rules.

Through exposure to language input, children are able to acquire and develop their linguistic skills, utilizing the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar.

In a study by Robert D. Borsley and Kersti Börjars, the authors explore non-transformational syntax, which provides a different perspective on the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar. This study provides a deeper understanding of the complexities of language acquisition and the role of Universal Grammar.

Consider the example of a child learning to form questions in English. Despite the complex rules and exceptions, children quickly understand that the auxiliary verb usually moves to the beginning of the sentence to form a question. This rapid understanding of a complex rule suggests the existence of an innate language acquisition mechanism, as proposed by Chomsky.

The Role of Innate Knowledge in Language Acquisition

Chomsky's theory on language acquisition emphasizes the role of innate knowledge in the process of learning and using language. According to Chomsky, language acquisition is not solely dependent on external stimuli and environmental factors. Instead, he proposes that humans possess an inherent language faculty, which enables them to acquire and understand language.

Universal Grammar provides the foundation for language acquisition, serving as a blueprint for constructing grammatically correct sentences across different languages.

Chomsky also introduces the concept of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD), a specialized language processor within the human brain. The LAD is believed to contain the innate principles necessary for language learning. It enables children to navigate the intricacies of language, process linguistic input, and generate grammatically accurate sentences.

While the LAD is activated and influenced by the language exposure in the environment, Chomsky argues that it is unique to humans. This supports the notion that language acquisition is a distinct human capacity, separate from general cognitive abilities .

The LAD allows children to effortlessly acquire language, even in the absence of explicit instruction, and adapt to the specific grammatical patterns of their native language.

Chomsky's theory emphasizes the role of innate knowledge in language acquisition. The concept of Universal Grammar and the Language Acquisition Device highlight the capacity of humans to effortlessly acquire and utilize language, guided by innate underlying grammatical rules and a specialized language processor in the brain.

The Evolution of Chomsky's Theories

Chomsky's theories have evolved over time, undergoing several phases of work that have greatly influenced the field of linguistics. The initial phase can be found in his groundbreaking book "Syntactic Structures," where he introduced the concept of generative grammar.

This model focused on the underlying structures of language rather than surface-level observations. Chomsky argued for a clear distinction between competence (knowledge of language) and performance (actual language use), emphasizing the importance of studying the innate grammatical rules that govern language.

In the subsequent phase, Chomsky developed the Aspects Model, also known as the Standard Theory, presented in "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax." This model expanded on the idea of generative grammar, introducing the notions of deep and surface structure.

Deep structure refers to the abstract underlying representation of a sentence, while surface structure pertains to its observable form. Chomsky proposed transformational rules that convert deep structures into surface structures, accounting for the surface variations between sentences.

Later, Chomsky proposed the Government and Binding Model, which emphasized the role of specific principles and parameters in language acquisition. This model focused on the syntactic relations between words and introduced the idea that each language may have different settings for these universal principles. This allowed for a more flexible approach to explaining the variation between languages.

Throughout these phases, Chomsky's theories have continuously sought to uncover the innate knowledge and structures that underlie human language capacity, making significant contributions to the understanding of language acquisition and the nature of linguistic structures.

Chomsky vs. Behaviorism: A Linguistic Showdown

The theories proposed by Noam Chomsky stand in stark contrast to the behaviorist perspective on language acquisition. While behaviorism posits that language development is primarily driven by external stimuli and reinforced through behavioral conditioning, Chomsky's perspective is rooted in innate knowledge and universal grammatical principles.

Chomsky's critique of behaviorist theories , such as those proposed by B.F. Skinner, centers on their inability to account for the complex and creative nature of language. He argues that behavioral reinforcement alone cannot sufficiently explain the rapidity and precision with which children acquire their native language.

Instead, he suggests that children possess an innate language acquisition mechanism, which enables them to naturally grasp the underlying grammatical structures of any language they are exposed to.

The key difference between Chomsky's theory and Skinner's behaviorist approach lies in the emphasis on internal knowledge versus external conditioning .

Chomsky argues that language acquisition is not solely dependent on external factors, but rather on the innate ability of the human brain to acquire grammatical categories and syntactic rules. In contrast, behaviorism focuses on the role of external stimuli and behavioral reinforcement in shaping language development.

In a study by Gregory Radick, the author explores the politics of behaviorism and the unmaking of a modern synthesis between Noam Chomsky and Charles Hockett. This study provides a deeper understanding of the complexities of language acquisition and the role of Universal Grammar.

Critiques of Chomsky's Linguistic Theories

Critiques of Chomsky's linguistic theories have been raised by scholars and researchers, challenging some of the key assumptions and claims put forth by Chomsky in his work. One main criticism revolves around the lack of empirical evidence supporting Chomsky's theories.

Some argue that his ideas are largely theoretical and have not been adequately tested or supported by experimental research.

Another objection centers around the concept of universal grammar, which is at the core of Chomsky's theory. Critics argue that the notion of a universal grammar, a set of innate grammar rules shared by all human languages, is controversial and lacks substantial evidence.

They contend that the diversity and variation between languages and cultures suggest that grammatical structures are not universal, but rather shaped by specific historical, social, and cultural contexts.

Furthermore, critics point out that Chomsky's theories fail to account for the significant variation in language use and acquisition between individuals and cultures . They argue that language acquisition is influenced by a wide range of factors, including cultural norms, individual experiences, and social interactions, which cannot be fully explained by Chomsky's theory of universal grammar alone.

In summary, while Chomsky's linguistic theories have made significant contributions to the field of linguistics, they have also faced critiques regarding the lack of empirical evidence, the controversy surrounding universal grammar, and the failure to account for language variation.

These criticisms highlight the need for continued research and dialogue in the field of linguistics to further our understanding of language acquisition and use.

The Impact of Chomsky's Theory on Modern Linguistics

Chomsky's Theory of Universal Grammar has had a profound impact on modern linguistics, revolutionizing the field and challenging traditional views on language acquisition. At its core, Chomsky's theory posits that humans are born with an innate knowledge of language structures and grammatical rules, which he refers to as Universal Grammar.

This departure from behaviorist explanations, which suggested that language development was solely a product of environmental factors and conditioning, was groundbreaking.

Chomsky argued that the human brain possesses a language acquisition mechanism that enables children to effortlessly learn and generate grammatically correct sentences, despite the limited input they receive during the critical period of language development.

Chomsky's Theory of Universal Grammar not only challenged prevailing theories, but also paved the way for a deeper understanding of the structure of language and how it is processed in the human brain.

By positing the existence of universal grammatical categories and syntactic rules, Chomsky provided a framework for studying language that transcends individual languages and allows for the identification of underlying linguistic principles.

Today, Chomsky's theories continue to shape the study of language structure and the development of linguistics as a scientific discipline. His emphasis on the innate knowledge of grammar and the systematic nature of language has led to advancements in our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in language acquisition and processing.

Chomsky's work has sparked greater interest in the field and fostered ongoing research into the properties and universality of language across cultures.

Chomsky's Theory of Universal Grammar has had a transformative impact on modern linguistics by challenging behaviorist explanations of language acquisition and providing a framework for studying the structure and development of language.

His theories continue to guide research in the field and shape our understanding of the innate nature of human language knowledge .

Noam Chomsky's Books

Noam Chomsky, a renowned linguist and philosopher, has made significant contributions to the field of linguistics through his extensive research and influential writings. His notable works include "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory" (1964), "Language and Mind" (1972), "Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar" (1972), "Knowledge of Language" (1986), and "Gaza in Crisis" (2010).

In "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory," Chomsky delves into the fundamental principles of generative grammar and syntax, presenting his groundbreaking theories on the innate nature of language acquisition and the structure of human language. "Language and Mind" explores the relationship between language, thought, and the human mind, highlighting the role of language as a cognitive tool .

Chomsky's "Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar" focuses on the study of meaning in language and the development of a formalized system for the analysis of semantic structures.

"Knowledge of Language" delves into the concept of linguistic competence and challenges prevailing notions of language as a behaviorist phenomenon, emphasizing the innate knowledge and underlying systematic rules of language.

Outside of linguistics, Chomsky's book "Gaza in Crisis" explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, offering a critical analysis and advocating for a just resolution.

Through his books, Chomsky has shaped the field of linguistics, transformed our understanding of language and cognition, and provided a powerful critique of political and societal issues . His impressive body of work continues to inspire researchers and scholars across various disciplines.

Here are ten of Noam Chomsky's most influential publications that have significantly shaped the field of linguistics and cognitive science:

• Syntactic Structures (1957): This groundbreaking work is considered the cornerstone of Chomsky's linguistic theory, introducing the concept of transformational grammar.
• Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) : In this book, Chomsky elaborates on his theory of transformational grammar, further developing the concept of deep structure and surface structure.
• The Sound Pattern of English (1968): Co-authored with Morris Halle, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of English phonology.
• Language and Mind (1968): This book expands on Chomsky's belief in the innate aspects of language, arguing against behaviorist theories of language acquisition.
• American Power and the New Mandarins (1969) : Chomsky's first political book, it is a collection of essays criticizing American foreign policy.
• The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (1975): A technical treatise on transformational grammar, it was actually written in the 1950s but only published in full in 1975.
• Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use (1986): Here, Chomsky introduces the concept of principles and parameters, a significant development in his linguistic theory.
• Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) : Co-authored with Edward S. Herman, this book critiques the media's role in promoting government propaganda.
• The Minimalist Program (1995): This book presents Chomsky's minimalist program, a major revision of his linguistic theory.
• Who Rules the World? (2016) : In this recent work, Chomsky critiques contemporary power structures and foreign policy.

As John Collins , a linguistics scholar, once said, "Chomsky's work has not only revolutionized the field of linguistics, but has also left a significant impact on psychology, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and brain science." Indeed, a study found that Chomsky is one of the most cited scholars in the academic world, underscoring the profound influence of his work.

Key Insights:

• Chomsky's work spans a wide range of topics, from linguistics to media critique and political commentary.
• His theories, particularly those related to transformational grammar and universal grammar, have revolutionized the field of linguistics.
• Chomsky's influence extends beyond linguistics, impacting fields such as psychology, cognitive science, and political science.

Language Acquisition Theory

These studies provide valuable insights into various aspects of language acquisition theories, highlighting their relevance and application in understanding how languages are learned and processed in the human mind.

1. IMPLICATIONS OF RECENT PSYCHOLINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE TEACHING OF A SECOND LANGUAGE by L. A. Jakobovits (1968)

This study emphasizes the developmental nature of language acquisition, advocating for controlled exposure to linguistic materials and transformation exercises at various levels. It suggests a significant shift in teaching methodologies for language learners, especially for those acquiring languages beyond their native ones.

2. Nativization, Linguistic Theory , and Deaf Language Acquisition by J. Gee and Wendy Goodhart (2013)

This paper explores deaf language acquisition and supports theories like nativization-denativization and bioprogram, highlighting complexities in language acquisition among deaf individuals. It sheds light on the unique aspects of acquiring natural languages in deaf individuals, distinct from those observed in hearing individuals.

3. The Least a Second Language Acquisition Theory Needs to Explain by Michael H. Long (1990)

Long's work argues that second language acquisition theories need to explain major findings such as the relationships between process and product, and variance in learners and learning environments. It stresses the importance of understanding how different variables impact the learning of single languages.

4. The Competence of Processing: Classifying Theories of Second Language Acquisition by E. Bialystok (1990)

Bialystok proposes a reclassification of second language acquisition theories based on competence and processing criteria. The paper provides insights into understanding the distinction between competence and performance in language use, highlighting the complexities of acquiring linguistic competence.

5. The Influence of Linguistic Theories on Language Acquisition Research: Description and Explanation by P. Lightbown and Lydia White (1987)

This paper discusses how linguistic theories are essential in explaining the acquisition of formal grammar properties, though their role in other aspects of language acquisition, such as the acquisition of linguistic knowledge by English speakers, remains unclear.

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Thinking About Education

Noam Chomsky Spells Out the Purpose of Education

E + ducere: “To lead or draw out.” The etymological Latin roots of “education.” According to a former Jesuit professor of mine, the fundamental sense of the word is to draw others out of “darkness,” into a “more magnanimous view” (he’d say, his arms spread wide). As inspirational as this speech was to a seminar group of budding higher educators, it failed to specify the means by which this might be done, or the reason. Lacking a Jesuit sense of mission, I had to figure out for myself what the “darkness” was, what to lead people towards, and why. It turned out to be simpler than I thought, in some respects, since I concluded that it wasn’t my job to decide these things, but rather to present points of view, a collection of methods—an intellectual toolkit, so to speak—and an enthusiastic model. Then get out of the way. That’s all an educator can, and should do, in my humble opinion. Anything more is not education, it’s indoctrination. Seemed simple enough to me at first. If only it were so. Few things, in fact, are more contentious (Google the term “assault on education,” for example).

What is the difference between education and indoctrination? This debate rages back hundreds, thousands, of years, and will rage thousands more into the future. Every major philosopher has had one answer or another, from Plato to Locke, Hegel and Rousseau to Dewey. Continuing in that venerable tradition, linguist, political activist, and academic generalist extraordinaire Noam Chomsky, one of our most consistently compelling public intellectuals, has a lot to say in the video above and elsewhere about education.

First, Chomsky defines his view of education in an Enlightenment sense, in which the “highest goal in life is to inquire and create. The purpose of education from that point of view is just to help people to learn on their own. It’s you the learner who is going to achieve in the course of education and it’s really up to you to determine how you’re going to master and use it.” An essential part of this kind of education is fostering the impulse to challenge authority, think critically, and create alternatives to well-worn models. This is the pedagogy I ended up adopting, and as a college instructor in the humanities, it’s one I rarely have to justify.

Chomsky defines the opposing concept of education as indoctrination, under which he subsumes vocational training, perhaps the most benign form. Under this model, “People have the idea that, from childhood, young people have to be placed into a framework where they’re going to follow orders. This is often quite explicit.” (One of the entries in the Oxford English Dictionary defines education as “the training of an animal,” a sense perhaps not too distinct from what Chomsky means). For Chomsky, this model of education imposes “a debt which traps students, young people, into a life of conformity. That’s the exact opposite of what traditionally comes out of the Enlightenment.” In the contest between these two definitions—Athens vs. Sparta, one might say—is the question that plagues educational reformers at the primary and secondary levels: “Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?”

Chomsky goes on to discuss the technological changes in education occurring now, the focus of innumerable discussions and debates about not only the purpose of education, but also the proper methods (a subject this site is deeply invested in), including the current unease over the  shift to online over traditional classroom ed  or the  value of a traditional degree versus a certificate. Chomsky’s view is that technology is “basically neutral,” like a hammer that can build a house or “crush someone’s skull.” The difference is the frame of reference under which one uses the tool. Again, massively contentious subject, and too much to cover here, but I’ll let Chomsky explain. Whatever you think of his politics, his erudition and experience as a researcher and educator make his views on the subject well worth considering.

Josh Jones is a doctoral candidate in English at Fordham University and a co-founder and former managing editor of Guernica / A Magazine of Arts and Politics.  

See additional sources at: Noam Chomsky Spells Out the Purpose of Education

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Biography of Noam Chomsky, Writer and Father of Modern Linguistics

• English Grammar
• M.L.S, Library Science, Indiana University

Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, and political activist. His theories made the modern scientific study of linguistics possible. He is a leader in peace activism and opposition to U.S. foreign policy.

Fast Facts: Noam Chomsky

• Full Name: Avram Noam Chomsky
• Occupation : Linguistics theorist and political writer
• Born : December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Spouse: Carol Doris Schatz (died 2008), Valeria Wasserman (married 2014)
• Children: Aviva, Diane, Harry
• Education: University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University
• Selected Works : "Syntactic Structures" (1957), "Fateful Triangle" (1983), "Manufacturing Consent" (1988), "Understanding Power" (2002)

Noam Chomsky's parents, William and Elsie, were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. William fled Russia in 1913 to avoid conscription into the army. He worked in Baltimore sweatshops upon arriving in the U.S. After university education, William joined the Gratz College faculty in Philadelphia. Elsie was born in Belarus and became a teacher.

Growing up deeply enmeshed in Jewish culture, Noam Chomsky learned Hebrew as a child. He took part in family discussions of the politics of Zionism, the international movement supporting the development of a Jewish nation.

Chomsky described his parents as typical Roosevelt Democrats, but other relatives introduced him to socialism and the politics of the far left. Noam Chomsky wrote his first article at age ten about the dangers of the spread of fascism during the Spanish Civil War . Two or three years later, he began identifying himself as an anarchist.

Education and Early Career

Noam Chomsky enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania at age 16. He paid for his education by teaching Hebrew. For some time, frustrated with the university education, he considered dropping out and moving to a kibbutz in Palestine. However, meeting Russian-born linguist, Zeilig Harris changed his education and career. Influenced by the new mentor, Chomsky decided to major in theoretical linguistics.

Setting himself up in opposition to the prevailing behaviorist theories of linguistics, Chomsky attended Harvard University as a Ph.D. student from 1951 to 1955. His first academic article, "Systems of Syntactic Analysis," appeared in The Journal of Symbolic Logic.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hired Noam Chomsky as an assistant professor in 1955. There, he published his first book, "Syntactic Structures." In the work, he discusses a formal theory of linguistics that distinguishes between syntax , the structure of language, and semantics , the meaning. Most academic linguists either dismissed the book or were openly hostile to it. Later, it was recognized as a volume that revolutionized the scientific study of linguistics.

In the early 1960s, Chomsky argued against language as learned behavior, a theory promoted by the famed psychologist B.F. Skinner. He believed that theory failed to account for creativity in human linguistics. According to Chomsky, humans aren't born as a blank slate when it comes to language. He believed the necessary range of rules and structures for creating grammar are innate in the human mind. Without the presence of those basics, Chomsky thought creativity was impossible.

Anti-War Activist

Beginning in 1962, Noam Chomsky joined protests against the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War . He began speaking publicly at small gatherings and published the anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals" in "The New York Review of Books" in 1967. He collected his political writing in the 1969 book "American Power and the New Mandarins." Chomsky followed it with four more political books in the 1970s.

Chomsky helped form the anti-war intellectual collective RESIST in 1967. Among the other founding members were clergyman William Sloane Coffin and poet Denise Levertov. He collaborated with Louis Kampf to teach undergraduate courses on politics at MIT. In 1970, Chomsky visited North Vietnam to lecture at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology and then toured refugee camps in Laos. The anti-war activism earned him a place on President Richard Nixon's list of political opponents.

Modern Linguistics Pioneer

Noam Chomsky continued to expand and update his theories of language and grammar in the 1970s and 1980s. He introduced a framework of what he called "principles and parameters."

The principles were basic structural features universally present in all of the natural languages. They were the material that was natively present in a child's mind. The presence of these principles helped explain the rapid acquisition of language facility in young children.

Parameters were the optional materials that can provide variance in linguistic structure. Parameters could impact word order in sentences, the sounds of language, and many other elements that make languages different from each other.

Chomsky's shift in the paradigm of language study revolutionized the field. It impacted other areas of study like ripples produced by a stone dropped in a pond. Chomsky's theories were very important in the development of both computer programming and the study of cognitive development.

Later Political Work

In addition to his academic work in linguistics, Noam Chomsky remained committed to his standing as a prominent political dissident. He opposed the U.S. support of the Contras in their fight against the Nicaraguan Sandinista government in the 1980s. He visited with workers' organizations and refugees in Managua and lectured on the intersection between linguistics and politics.

Chomsky's 1983 book "The Fateful Triangle" argued that the U.S. government used the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for its own ends. He visited Palestinian territories in 1988 to witness the impact of the Israeli occupation.

Among the other political causes that drew Chomsky's attention were the fight for East Timor independence in the 1990s, the Occupy movement in the U.S., and efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. He also applies his theories of linguistics to help explain the impact of the media and propaganda in political movements.

Retirement and Recognition

Noam Chomsky officially retired from MIT in 2002. However, he continued to conduct research and hold seminars as an emeritus faculty member. He continues to deliver lectures around the world. In 2017, Chomsky taught a politics course at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He became a part-time professor there in the linguistics department.

Chomsky received honorary doctorate degrees from institutions around the world including the University of London, University of Chicago, and Delhi University. He's often named as one of the most influential intellectuals of the latter half of the 20th century. He earned the 2017 Sean MacBride Peace Prize from the International Peace Bureau.

Noam Chomsky is recognized as the "father of modern linguistics." He is also one of the founders of cognitive science. He has published more than 100 books ranging across the disciplines of linguistics, philosophy, and politics. Chomsky is one of the most prominent critics of U.S. foreign policy and one of the most frequently cited scholars in academia.

• Chomsky, Noam. Who Rules the World? Metropolitan Books, 2016.
• Chomsky, Noam, Peter Mitchell, and John Schoeffel. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky. The New Press, 2002.
• Definition Plus Examples of a Kernel Sentence
• Transformational Grammar (TG) Definition and Examples
• Linguistic Performance
• Definition and Discussion of Chomskyan Linguistics
• Definition and Examples of Speakers in Language Studies
• What Is Linguistic Functionalism?
• Definition and Examples of Transformations in Grammar
• Universal Grammar (UG)
• Definition of Deep Structure
• surface structure (generative grammar)
• Generative Grammar: Definition and Examples
• Communicative Competence Definition, Examples, and Glossary
• Prescriptivism
• Learn the Definition of Mental Grammar and How it Works
• A Crash Course in the Branches of Linguistics
• Definition and Examples of Grammaticality

The Home of Noam Chomsky

THE HOME OF NOAM

Noam Chomsky, who joined the University of Arizona faculty in fall 2017, is a laureate professor in the Department of Linguistics in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He is also the Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice.

Noam Chomsky in the News

Video Library

Q&A with Noam Chomsky (SXSW23 Wonder House)

We asked Noam Chomsky about the future of our world, our systems of government and power and our need to come together to address the challenges of our time. The laureate professor and public intellectual shared his thoughts with UArizona College of Social & Behavioral Sciences Dean Lori Poloni-Staudinger.

Office hours with Professor Noam Chomsky (2021)

December 2021

University of Arizona students ask Professor Chomsky questions about politics, career advice, technology, the future, and linguistics in this open forum. This event is co-organized by ASUA and the UArizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Support comes from the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice.

Noam Chomsky & Jonathan Kozol in Conversation

Education, Inequality, and the Decline of the "Public Good"

November 10, 2021

Noam Chomsky and Jonathan Kozol discuss education, inequality, and the decline of the “public good.” Together they examine the current inequalities in education and school experience and where we go from here. This virtual University of Arizona event is presented by the College of Education’s Education Policy Center and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Office Hours with Noam Chomsky (2020)

October 12, 2020

Office Hours with Noam Chomsky (2019)

October 2, 2019

University of Arizona students ask Noam Chomsky questions about politics, the future, and linguistics in this open forum. Co-organized by ASUA and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, with support from the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice.

Conversation on Campus Free Speech

September 5, 2018

Noam Chomsky joins a panel of the most prominent voices in the country on the topic of free speech. The discussion includes the boundaries of free speech on campus, where there is often a tension between adhering to the legal guidelines of free speech and promoting a non-hostile learning environment.

Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky Discuss Nuclear War

April 24, 2018

Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed moderated a discussion between Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg on the topic of nuclear policy and war. Chomsky, a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona, and Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner,” appeared onstage together for the first time.

The Haury Conversation: Noam Chomsky with Toni Massaro

November 9, 2017

Interview with Noam Chomsky by Toni Massaro at Centennial Hall in 2017.

A Conversation on Privacy

March 25, 2016

The balance between national security and government intrusion on the rights of private citizens was the topic of this panel discussion featuring renowned linguist and MIT professor Noam Chomsky, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald. Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, acted as moderator.

Sponsored by the Don Bennett Moon Foundation

Education For Whom and For What?

February 8, 2012

Noam Chomsky, a world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist, spoke at the University of Arizona before joining SBS. His lecture, "Education: For Whom and For What?" featured a talk on the state of higher education, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Noam Chomsky is the Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice.

Visit the Haury Program website