>For my two cents, his mistake lies in being a free speech absolutist to
>begin
>with. While I've learned a lot from him, and agree with a good deal of his
>work,
>I'm routinely disappointed every time I bump into his free speech
>absolutism,
>especially since I've still yet to found a *nuanced* defense or
>presentation of
>it.
Who needs a nuanced defense? The matter is simple. The government has almost no right to shut people up. That's the law, and it's also right. The reason it's right is that it gets real scary real fast where speech can be regulated by content, There are handful of limited exceptions: incitment to immanent criminal activity being the central one. Political speech, however offensive, is core-protected as long as it doesn't cross that line. Reasonable time place and manner restrictions are OK too.
Whatever else may be true of free speech absolutism, it strikes me as a
>difficult and complex issue, worth at least some trouble to unpack it in
>detail.
So buy a good book on Fitst AMendment law, Kalven is good, somewhat dated; I still like Emerson's old General Theory. Chomsky doesn't have to do that.
Especially when, as Chomsky does, one appeals to it so often.
>>
. . . .
>He tends toward a kind of odd scientism that's hard to reconcile with some
>of
>the things I believe about philosophy of science, the nature of
>rationality, and
>so on.
Well, maybe he doesn't believe those things. I am pretty scientistic myself. Science is how we know things that aren't obvious, and often how we know how things that are obvious are false.
And I think he unhelpfully dismisses interesting work in the social
>sciences with his oft-repeated refrain of "we don't know anything about foo
>or
>bar" -- sure, if "know" can only mean what it means in physics, but why on
>earth
>would anyone believe *that*?
Certainly not the most eminent social scientist of the last three generations!
>
>On a personal note, he and his wife are apparently some of the warmest and
>most
>welcoming people one could hope to know. A friend of a friend bought an old
>Eames (I think...) chair from the Chomsky's two or so years ago.
Yes, Eames. Cool.
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