Noam chomsky portrait 2017 retouched

Noam Chomsky, December 7th 1928

By Ebush97

  • Syntactic Structures

    Chomsky published his book on which challenged the then dominant Harris-Bloomfield trends within the filed of linguistics. His theory was met with critique and praise with fellow linguist John Lyons stating, "Syntactic Structures revolutionized the scientific study of language"(Lyons). Chomsky's critique on the philosophy of linguistics was that behaviorism underplayed the role of human creativity in learning language and overplayed the role of external conditions in influencing verbal behavior.

  • MIT

    After his publication of Syntactic Structures Chomsky received tenure at MIT and became a full-time professor in the department of Modern Language and Linguistics. Chomsky then became a co-founder of MIT's graduate program in linguistics. His teachings on linguistics had profound effects on the field of philosophy because it challenged behaviorist views of language acquisition which prompted inquiries into innate knowledge, leading to debates whether language shapes thought or vice versa.

  • Why Philosophy

    Chomsky's interests in philosophy made his approach to linguistics drastically different than scientists in his field. He utilized the Galilean approach in his studies and coined three levels of adequacy that the theory of language should satisfy, the first being observational, the second descriptive, and the third explanatory. His theories much opposed previous linguists but soon have become the more dominant theory among philosophers and linguists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLld8DCdl-o

  • Philosophy of Science 1960s - Present

    His work in linguistics has been highly influential in the scientific field of linguistics as well as philosophy. His published works have had great influences on philosophy especially in epistemology. His critiques generated healthy debates on rationalist principles of how human cognition and knowledge acquisition works. Are we born with innate abilities or do outside forces shape our linguistic patterns? These questions philosophers still debate showing Chomsky's outreach with his theories.