Reflections on Language

" Noam Chomsky's work in linguistics has revolutionized our understanding of language. In these remarkable, nontechnical Reflections, Chomsky considers the point and purpose of studying language and explores some of the more general intellectual implications that result from the study of linguistics. The questions he considers are the classical ones. From Plato to the present time, philosophers have been baffled and intrigued by how human beings, with their limited and personal experience, achieve such rich systems of knowledge, beliefs, and values-- systems that guide their actions and their interpretations of experience. In answer to this fundamental question, Chomsky argues that the growth of language is analogous to the development of a bodily organ and is in large measure predetermined by genetic factors. Throughout these Reflections, Chomsky offers incisive analyses of the controversies raging today among psychologists, philosophers, and linguists over the acquisition of cognitive structures, the way language interacts with other mental organs, and the way cognitive structures enter into and guide human activity. He explores the social and intellectual factors that have led to the dominance of certain ways of thinking, and asks why the study of mind and behavior has so often followed a path remote from the general approach of the natural sciences. In examining some of the implications of recent work, her suggests that the conception of man as totally malleable not only is false but also serves naturally as a support for reactionary social doctrines."-- Publisher.