Ask HN: What do you think about Noam Chomsky?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7728621

by wsieroci • 12 years ago

4 13 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi,

Simple question: what do you think about Noam Chomsky?

Best, Wiktor

dalke4• 12 years ago

That's a simple question with many complex answers, including those with very strong opinions both for and against.

Personally, I'm philosophically inclined towards emergent models of linguistics rather than Chomsky's universal grammar, but I have barely the ability to write Pirahã, much less go into a detailed discussion of the current naturist/nurturist debate.

So your question might be a bit more specific in order to get the answers you're looking for.

ericdenver• 12 years ago

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator and activist. Sometimes described as the "father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy.

atmosx• 12 years ago

I hold him in high regard for the clarity of his thinking. He is a breath of fresh air when it comes to pundits.

blacksqr3• 12 years ago

I have yet to see Chomsky's arguments disproved on the facts. When you parse his detractors' criticisms, they can always be paraphrased not as: "your conclusions are wrong because your facts are wrong," but as "your conclusions are wrong because their implications are unthinkable."

impendia• 12 years ago

A friend of mine, working towards a Ph.D. in linguistics, told me that she witnessed a lecture where Chomsky claimed, on the basis of his theories, that no human language could possibly do X. (For some complicated, technical X.)

A hand from the audience: "Estonian does X."

I googled just now and believe the following PPT elaborates, but I make no claim to understand the details.

math.ut.ee/~heli_u/ettekanne/Koke.ppt‎

dalke4• 12 years ago

What's your views on Chomsky's defense of the Khmer Rouge, and his argument that the evidence for the Cambodian genocide was "third-rate propaganda"?

blacksqr3• 12 years ago

If you took my comment to mean that I think Chomsky is always right, then you have misunderstood. I have simply noted that the enthusiastic "debunkings" of Chomsky that I have come across have been of very low quality, and often include explicit pleading to trust those in power, instead of pointing out where he has actually gone wrong in his arguments.

As to your specific question, a few seconds googling produced this: bigwhiteogre.blogspot.com/2010/07/chomskys-views-on-khmer-rouge-distorted.html?m=1

Myself, I take no position. Let the debate continue. Let the facts be known.

wturner• 12 years ago

When I was a kid the internet wasn't available so I would always try and seek out weird ideas on my own. I discovered Chomsky's views reading a Rolling Stone issue that featured an interview with him.

I think his pointing out of government and corporate cultural assumptions are fine and generally true but his underline philosophy of 'libertarian socialism' I think is just divorced from the real world.

I used to have one of his interviews with David Barsamian on a cassette tape ( I'm not sure of the date ), but I remember Chomsky saying in response to a question about his societal vision that he believed "skills shouldn't confer power". In short if you have a special talent or skill it shouldn't give you any social leverage. I don't disagree with that but I will tell you one thing. The world will never, and I mean never ever "work" like that short of the personable interactions between close friends and family. To that regard I simply don't see any utility in Chomsky's social philosophy other than it being a foundation to see the corruption of those he critiques a bit more clearly.

So that's my only disagreement with him. I do think muckrakers do the world a service and he has played his role well in unveiling the ideological assumptions of a figure-head and pundit driven media world.

Beyond that, to me he's just another privileged academic who has had the pleasure of traveling the world and saying a bunch of smart things.

mrfusion• 12 years ago

I recently watched his movie "manufacturing consent" and was surprisingly disappointed. It seemed kind of disjoint with no solid message and unfortunately it was boring to watch to boot.

I really think corporate control of media, and media bias, and how it affects our society is a really important topic that needs its own easy to digest documentary, like black fish, or an inconvenient truth. Something that will popularize the issue, and explain the problems to people who normally wouldn't be interested.

tentoo12• 12 years ago

Fwiw, it's not his movie. It's named after a book he wrote with Edward Herman. The documentary was made by two Canadians, presumably as an attempt to communicate the ideas from the book via film.

Ask HN: What do you think about Noam Chomsky?

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