>
>There may or may not be such a thing as "human nature" (I doubt that
there is in any
>non-tautological sense), but I would agree with Hannah Arendt's claim
that even if
>there were we could never know it. Of course Arendt then funked out by
substituting
>a functional equivalent, "the human condition."
>
>On the whole (Geras being the best known exception), most social
theories positing
>some knowable "human nature) are anti-marxist (as is Chomsky's) or even
reactionary.
>Associating this debate with "pomos" is puerile.
>
>Carrol
>
>
Once again we're reduced to a game of "Chomsky said this!" "No, he didn't!" Isn't it amazing how a reedy little intellectual, about as uncharasmatic as they come, can inspire such vitriol?
Nevertheless...
Chomsky has repeatedly said that he is skeptical of anyone who claims to know anything definate about human nature - we are left with statements of faith more than anything else. From an interview:
Chase: What is the connection between your interest in linguistics and your interest in politics?
Chomsky: The connections are very abstract. But take what I said about our ability to use language and make judgements about things vastly beyond our experience. Well, the same logic applies in other areas. You and I are capable of making moral judgments that go vastly beyond any direct experience we have. We make moral judgments in new cases and we often know how to make them in quite intricate cases. You have a certain conception of how a society ought to be organized, you can see things that you don't like and you can change them. That must come from some concept of human beings and what's right for them. What needs they have, what rights they have and so on.
Chase: So certain ideas are innate.
Chomsky: Here we are turning to speculation. Perhaps our nature has at its core what has sometimes been called an instinct for freedom. If so, perhaps this has some relation to what is found in the study of human cognitive abilities, the possibility that at the core of your use of language is a certain striking and dramatic kind of freedom that was traditionally taken to be the basic difference between humans and machines.
Jim Baird
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