FWD: Re: J. O'Connor on Chomsky

[William S. Lear]

On Wed, November 4, 1998 at 19:38:47 (-0800) Paul Henry Rosenberg writes:
>Barbara Laurence wrote:
>> 
>> I once read an article by Chomsky in a magazine in the dentist's office. He
>> made a series of claims about Marxism, all of which were questionable. I
>> wrote Chomsky (who I've met exactly once in the anti-war days), explaining
>> why his claims were questionable. He wrote back: "I agree with everything
>> you said in your letter and I wouldn't change a thing in my article." Well,
>> how about that as a show stopper.
>> 
>> I've been looking for an account that links Chomsky's radical humanism in
>> politics with his universal grammar and other scientific work. I guess that
>> the former has something to do with the latter. Anyone know any discussion
>> of this.
>> Jim O'Connor
>
>Chomsky has repeatedly denied that there's any connection between his
>work in linguistics and his politics.

This is not entirely true.  He says that there are very tenuous
connections, mostly at the level of hope, between the two.  He has a
"gut feeling" that peoples language capacity is a reflection of
deep-seated human needs that include the need to be involved with
others.  He thinks the "instinct for freedom" described by Bakunin,
Rousseau (etc.) is quite plausible, though he does not believe there
is any deep evidence for such.

O'Connor might like to try the following:

    *Reflections on Language* (Pantheon Books, 1975)

    *Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use* (Praeger, 1986)

    *Language and Thought* (Moyer Bell, 1993)

    *Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist

    Thought* (University Press of America, 1966)

also good is *Language and Politics* (Black Rose Books, 1988), edited
by Carlos P. Otero.

Though I haven't gone through it, I imagine that Barsky's bio of
Chomsky covers this as well.

Bill