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Humanities Conversations — John Collinson On Chomsky
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Introduction
In this episode of Humanities Conversations, Dominik speaks with John Collinson, author of 'Chomsky: A Guide for the Perplexed', about the multifaceted work of Noam Chomsky. The discussion explores the 'Three Chomskys'—the linguist, philosopher, and political activist—while examining the concept of universal grammar and the 'poverty of stimulus' argument regarding language acquisition.
Dominik speaks with John Collinson, author of 'Chomsky: A Guide for the Perplexed', regarding the multifaceted work of Noam Chomsky. Collinson distinguishes between Chomsky as a technical linguist, a philosopher, and a political activist. The discussion covers the development of generative linguistics, the concept of universal grammar, and the 'poverty of stimulus' argument. Collinson explains Chomsky's view of language as a biological brain structure rather than a communication tool, using analogies such as a stereo system to describe the modularity of the mind. The conversation concludes by linking this biological creative autonomy to political morality and the requirement that managerial policies remain answerable to the people.
Topics
- The three perspectives of Noam Chomsky's work
- The evolution of generative linguistics and universal grammar
- The relationship between finite brain capacity and unbounded linguistic competence
- The relationship between syntax and semantics
- Competence versus performance in linguistics
- The mathematicalization of linguistics as a science
- Modularity of the mind and linguistics
- Nature vs. Nurture in language acquisition
- Chomsky's philosophy of language
- Evolution of language and natural selection
- The relationship between Chomsky's linguistics and his political activism
- Creative autonomy and political morality
Participants
- Dominik
- John Collinson
Names are taken from the archive as written and may include spelling variants.
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The third Chomsky is, I suppose, the Chomsky most people know. I was going to say know and love, but that's not necessarily the case. And this is Chomsky as as the political activist, if you like.
As it perhaps appears was upon introspection, just one big workspace, but rather a whole bunch of different kind of gizmos. So it's more like a stereo system, right? So you know.
In independence of any kind of managerial policy, in that case, then any such policy should be answerable to the people. And Chomsky's analysis is more or less invariably: it's not answerable to the people.
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