Chomsky Notebook (Columbia Themes in Philosophy) by Julie Franck (PDF)

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Noam Chomsky applies a rational, scientific approach to disciplines as diverse as linguistics, ethics, and politics. His best-known innovations involve a groundbreaking theory of generative grammar, the revolution it initiated in cognitive science, and a radical encounter with political theory and practice.In Chomsky Notebook, Cedric Boeckx and Norbert Hornstein tackle the evolution of Chomsky’s linguistic theory. Akeel Bilgrami revisits Chomsky’s work on freedom and truth, and Pierre Jacob analyzes his naturalism. Chomsky’s own contributions include an interview with Jean Bricmont and an essay each on Edward Said and the natural world. Altogether, these works reveal the penetrating insight of a remarkable intellectual whose thought extends into a number of fields within and outside of academia. For the uninitiated reader and longtime fan, this anthology attests to the power of Chomsky’s rationalism and the dexterity of his critical investigations.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The book is a delight of intelligent and unbiased thought and information not popularly known, or available. Because Chomsky is not an opinionated hack, or stereotypical thinker, this book is a handbook for pursuing a better world from within our diverse selves.

⭐Good reading subjects.

⭐The other day I walked into a local bookstore and this gem of a book was standing right before me, just a few copies left. I’ve always found Chomsky to be so important to our conception of the social and philosophical world, and I was pleased to see that this wasn’t just another collection of Chomsky essays. Instead, it’s a collection of essays by various authors (3 by Chomsky himself) familiar with Chomsky’s work and his impact on their area of focus.At 349 pages, this is a slightly oversized book so it is probably more like 400+ normal pages. It has a very nice layout, with bright, white pages, and feels comfortable to hold onto. The content is divided into 6 sections, as follows:PART I. CHOMSKY1. The Mysteries of Nature: How Deeply Hidden? [by Noam Chomsky] (3)2. The Great Soul of Power: Said Memorial Lecture [by Noam Chomsky] (34)PART II. INTRODUCTIONS3. Chomsky, France, Reason, Power [by Jean Bricmont and Julie Franck] (53)4. An Interview with Noam Chomsky [by Jean Bricmont] (74)PART III. LINGUISTIC THEORY AND LANGUAGE PROCESSES5. The Varying Aims of Linguistic Theory [by Cedric Boeckx and Norbert Hornstein] (115)6. Language, Thought, and Reality After Chomsky [by Gennaro Chierchia] (142)7. Generative Syntax in the Brain [by Yoself Grodzinsky] (170)PART IV. COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND8. Learning Organs [by Charles R. Gallistel] (193)9. Innateness, Choice, and Language [by Elizabeth Spelke] (203)10. The Scope and Limits of Chomsky’s Naturalism [by Pierre Jacob] (211)PART V. CHOMSKY AND THE INTELLIGENTSIA11. Conspiracy: When Journalists (and Their Favorites) Misrepresent the Critical Analysis of the Media [by Serge Halimi and Arnaud Rindel] (239)12. Noam Chomsky and the University [by Pierre Guelain] (258)13. The Practice of Intellectual Self-Defense in the University [by Normand Baillargeon] (283)14. Chomsky, Faurisson, and Vidal-Naquet [by Jean Bricmont] (292)15. Chomsky and Bourdieu: A Missed Encounter [by Frederic Delorca] (309)PART VI. POLITICS: THEORY AND PRACTICE16. Chomsky in France: The Resistance to Pragmatic Anti-Authoritarianism [by Larry Portis] (319)17. Testimony [by Susan George] (331)18. Truth, Balance, and Freedom [by Akeel Bilgrami] (334)List of contributors (349)____________________________________________The opening essay is a remarkable contribution to the history of science and philsophy of mind. Chomsky explores the origins of modern scientific skepticism, rooting it in Newton’s destruction of Cartesian contact mechanics. I have been aware of Chomsky’s view on this matter, but had yet to see this long and detailed an account.Some essays cover the scope and implications of Chomsky’s work. Some of the essays explain his work in linguistics, philosophy, and science – attempting to make them as easy to understand as possible in essay format. These essays are done by authors of significant stature in their respective fields.Other essays cover interesting topics about Chomsky and how he has been received, especially by intellectuals and the university. There is considerable attention given to how the postmodern left – and France, the central locus of postmodernism – has dealt with Chomsky. This is interesting because they tend to avoid Chomsky, even though their discourse concentrates on the topic of power, reason, and science – rejecting the latter two as Enlightenment myths (used, they allege, as an instrument to exercise power and control over marginalized and oppressed people).These essays should be an eye-opener for the postmodern left, which has constructed a bad caricature of science that they pass off as true without reference or citation to scientists themselves (see, for example, the opening pages of “The Postmodern Turn,” “A Primer on Postmodernism,” or for feminists, Jaggar’s essays in “Just Methods”). As a matter of fact, there is no evidence that the postmodern left has any AWARENESS of generative grammar or the ideas of innateness in cognitive science Spelke and others discuss in this volume (which is to say, they are in the Dark Ages of cognition).It is important that the left in the US universities (and people in general!) begin to address the issue of science and mind, as sociology, cultural studies, women’s studies, literary criticism, part of anthropology, and part of communications are dealing in (and indoctrinating their students with) reactionary characterizations of “Western” science. There is no better intellectual to lay this controversy to rest than Noam Chomsky, precisely because of his intimate knowledge of both the Enlightenment, science and rationality (on the one hand) and the social sciences and history (on the other). Chomsky’s account has remarkable coherence, something badly needed in these miserable and dangerous times.

⭐It is 5 years since this book was published in French; at last it appears under a U.S. imprint. For the non-specialistthe most accessible, and valuable, items are a long interview with Jean Bricmont,a wide ranging and coherent introductionto Chomsky’s poltics, besides some observations on science and philosophy’; a fine and penetrating essay on mind,invoking Newton and Descartes, and notably transparent.These parts of the collection contrast in rigour, perhaps, with a Said memorial lecture devoted to Chomsky’s well known analysis of power, empire, and the responsibility of intellectuals.Those who found Chomsky wrong, maybe interestingly wrong, about Kosovo will find his views remain settled. The chapters onlinguistics are beyond the present reviewer who nevertheless welcomes this wide-ranging book as a hopeful symptom of a growing improvement in the reception of Chomsky’s work in France.

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