>Whether Chomsky's hypothesis of innate ideas is a blow for anarchism,
>however, is far from clear. Why should we assume that the hypothesis
>of innate structures as the foundation of human language acquisition
>is less "authoritarian" & more "anarchistic" than the Skinnerian
>rejection of mentalism
First of all, Chomsky would probably discourage a linking of his "hypothesis of innate ideas" (a philosophical/scientific speculation) with his belief in anarchism (a political conviction).
Nonetheless, I think there is a way to think of Chomsky's theory of language as anarchistic, though it's likely a problematic connection, and one that I won't explain very well. According to anarchistic theory, humans have an innate desire for liberty ("the human capacity for freedom" as Chomsky calls it), but that liberty can't achieve form or expression unless it has a community or society with which to interact. Similarly, from what I understand of Chomsky's theory of language--which, I'll admit, isn't that much--humans have an innate capability for language, but it doesn't find form unless it makes outside contact. To quote your quoting of Chomsky, "Knowledge of language is normally attained through brief exposure." The exposure may be brief, but it is exposure. (This is all just an application of Kant's space-time theory to different concepts.) Anyway, the key ideas here are liberty and language. In Chomsky's theory, it would seem, something that is innate (in this case, liberty and language) is de facto nonauthoritarian; whether or not that thing becomes anarchistic (that is, whether liberty becomes true freedom, and whether language becomes pure expression) depends on the society that it comes to inhabit.
>On the other hand, one may interpret Chomsky as not a Cartesian
>dualist but a monist, since his "innate ideas" are understood as
>encoded in the brains.
But they still require outside stimulus to *become* ideas. Besides, Chomsky has always recognized that he's following Descartes here, and I see no reason to disagree with him.
Eric