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Noam Chompsky Birth
Noam Chomsky was born to immigrant parents in Philadelphia on December 7th 1928. An important personal note on what might have shaped Chomsky's world views; His father Zeev Chomsky was born in modern-day Ukraine (Russian Empire) before fleeing in 1913. His mother was from Belarus. His experiences with antisemitism in the United States and living through the atrocities of World War 2 and the starvation of Ukrainians during Holodomor. These events and the influence of his parents shaped Chomsky -
Ph.D in Linquistics
Noam Chomsky received his Ph.D in Linguistics in 1955 from the University of Pennsylvania. -
Professor of Linguistics
The same year that Noam Chomsky received his Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania he became a Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he would teach until retiring half a century later in 2005(Gale Biographies) -
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Professor of Linguistics
During his time at MIT he published over 100 books and wrote countless scholarly findings on linguistics, politics, philosophy, and science all while lecturing countless students His intellectual contributions are world-renowned. Even his political view of unconditional defense of free speech has helped shape our world. Chomsky has undeniably impacted the world of philosophy and science specifically through his openness in creativity, that scientific disciplines are constructs meant to be broken -
"Syntactic Structures"
Chomsky published his first book "Syntactic Structures." A book that set the standard of the scientific study of linguistics. The purpose of which was the rigorous formulation of linguistics. " Precisely constructed models for linguistic structure can play an important role, both negative and positive, in the process of discovery itself." (Syntactic Structures). As well as allowing a theory to provide solution for more problems than what it might have been explicitly designed for. -
What Is Said To Be
"The point of this criterion is not to say what there is, but rather
to determine what any theory says there is, independently of
whether we share its ontological assumptions or not" Chomsky's unique linguistic approach to the philosophy of science is one that looks to accurately translate and preserve. This claim states that it is not an argument of what a theory claims but what the claim is saying regardless of its validity. (Israel Scheffler, Noam Chomsky) -
Chomsky The Stony Brook Interviews
Noam Chomsky was interviewed by Peter Ludlow, on Philosophy, at The University of Michigan. Students and Peter Ludlow ask Chomsky questions on everything from Science, Mathematics, Physics, Linguistics and Philosophy. The question that stands out most is from a student and what I myself am exploring in Philosophy 202; "You’ve made clear that science plays a primary role in philosophy, and I was curious to know what role, if any, does philosophy play in science?" -
Philosophy in Science
Chomsky's answer:
"If you had asked Hume" referring to David Hume of the enlightenment, if he was a scientist or a philosopher, he wouldn't have answered, because there is no distinction. Until about the middle of the 19th century, there was no clear distinction. Even today Chomsky claims "Disciplines don't exist, We Construct them." It wasn't until the enlightenment that natural sciences were broken up into what was called the "Baconian" sciences. (Stony Brook University 38:38-40:45) -
Noam Today
Noam Chomsky is living his life of retirement in Tucson Arizona. He is still active in politics at the age of 93. He can be found doing interviews with an independent news source called "Democracy Now!" featured on YouTube.