- Born
- Birth nameAvram Noam Chomsky
- Height5′ 6½″ (1.69 m)
- Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. From 1951-55, he was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows. While a Junior Fellow he completed his doctoral dissertation, entitled, "Transformational Analysis." The major theoretical viewpoints of the dissertation appeared in the monograph "Syntactic Structure", published in 1957. This formed part of a more extensive work, "The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory", circulated in mimeograph in 1955 and published in 1975.
Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.) From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics. In 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. From 1958-59 he was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ. In the spring of 1969 he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford; in January 1970 he delivered the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at Cambridge University; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi; and in 1977 the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, among many others. Prof. Chomsky has received honorary degrees from the University of London, the University of Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, Swarthmore College, Delhi University, Bard College, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Amherst College, Cambridge University, the University of Buenos Aires, McGill University, the Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, Columbia University, the University of Connecticut, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, Harvard University, the University of Calcutta and Universidad Nacional De Colombia. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. He is also a member of other professional and learned societies in the United States and abroad, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others. Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. His works include "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax"; "Cartesian Linguistics"; "Sound Pattern of English" (with Morris Halle); "Language and Mind"; "American Power and the New Mandarins"; "At War with Asia"; "For Reasons of State"; "Peace in the Middle East?"; "Reflections on Language"; "The Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. I and II" (with E.S. Herman); "Rules and Representations"; "Lectures on Government and Binding"; "Towards a New Cold War"; "Radical Priorities"; "Fateful Triangle"; "Knowledge of Language"; "Turning the Tide"; "Pirates and Emperors"; "On Power and Ideology"; "Language and Problems of Knowledge"; "The Culture of Terrorism"; "Manufacturing Consent" (with E.S. Herman); "Necessary Illusions"; "Deterring Democracy"; "Year 501"; "Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War and US Political Culture"; "Letters from Lexington"; "World Orders, Old and New"; "The Minimalist Program"; "Powers and Prospects"; "The Common Good"; Profit Over People"; "The New Military Humanism"; "New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind"; "Rogue States"; "A New Generation Draws the Line"; "9-11"; and "Understanding Power".- IMDb Mini Biography By: MIT Linguistics Department (corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesValeria Wasserman(March 2014 - present)Carol Chomsky(December 24, 1949 - December 19, 2008) (her death, 3 children)
- ChildrenAviva ChomskyDiane ChomskyHarry Chomsky
- ParentsZe'ev William ChomskyElise Simon Chomsky
- RelativesDavid Eli Chomsky(Sibling)Marvin J. Chomsky(Cousin)
- Calm, measured delivery
- His 1957 work "Syntactic Structures" revolutionized the field of linguistics, fundamentally changing the current understanding of language and mind.
- Has written a number of books highly critical of the military-industrial complex and political corruption.
- Caused a major controversy when an article he'd written in defense of free speech was used as a preface for a book by Robert Faurisson, a French professor whose works have focused on his belief that the Holocaust was a hoax. Chomsky's support of Faurisson's right to freedom of speech, defense of the credibility of Faurrison's research and his repeated criticisms of Israel have led to accusations of anti-Semitism, which he denies, pointing out that he himself is Jewish.
- At the age of ten, he wrote his first political article on the fight against fascism in Spain.
- Joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy). From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and in 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. As of 2008, Chomsky has taught at MIT continuously for 53 years.
- The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants, and aliens, the more you control all the people.
- For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of "brainwashing under freedom" to which we are subjected and which all too often we serve as willing or unwitting instruments.
- The country was founded on the principle that the primary role of government is to protect property from the majority. And so it remains.
- [on dealing with Holocaust deniers] Going back years, I am absolutely certain that I've taken far more extreme postitions on people who deny the Holocaust than you have. For example, you go back to my earliest articles and you will find that I say that even to enter into the arena of debate on the question of whether the Nazis carried out such atrocities is already to lose one's humanity. So I don't even think you ought to discuss the issue if you want my opinion. But if anybody wants to refute Faurisson [denier Robert Faurisson'] there's certainly no difficulty in doing so.
- [from Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)] I do not think that the State ought to have the right to determine historical truths and to punish people who deviate from them. I'm not willing to give the State that right. I'm saying if you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. I mean, Goebbels [Joseph Goebbels] was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin [Joseph Stalin]. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise you're not in favor of freedom of speech.
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