Hegel, for instance, didn't have one mode of discourse for metaphysics and another for politics. But there is a difference: the great thinkers of the past spoke in a single language and employed a single manner of argument, whether they were treating the existence of God or the nature of the good society. Aristotle, Aquinas, Erasmus, Voltaire and Hegel all addressed both philosophical and political issues without any sense of exceeding their competence. The great intellectuals of the past took the whole range of human experience as their domain. The “Chomsky problem” is distinctly modem, but not unique to Chomsky. The result is a wellorganized, clearly written and comprehensive introduction to Chomsky's thought. Strangely enough, the tapes of the original interviews, in which Chomsky spoke in English, have been lost, leaving the translator, John Viertel, the ironic task of restoring Chomsky to his native language. “Book” is only a slight exaggeration: Chomsky does virtually all the talking (this is not Margaret Mead “rapping” with James Baldwin), and, because of a happy accident, the author has substantially corrected and revised the text.
LINGUIST PHILOSOPHER CHOMSKY SERIES
The question is posed at the very outset of the present book, a series of interviews conducted by the French linguist Mitsou Ronat and published originally in 1977: “Do you see a link between your scientific activities ‐ the study of language ‐ and your political activities?” To which Chomsky gives the correct answer: “There is no very direct connection between my political activities, writing and others, and the work bearing on language structure, though in some measure they perhaps derive from certain common assumptions and attitudes with regard to basic aspects of human nature.” He then proceeds to discuss politics for the first quarter of the book, and linguistics for the remainder. The “Chomsky problem” is to explain how these two fit together.
LINGUIST PHILOSOPHER CHOMSKY PROFESSIONAL
On the one hand there is a large body of revolutionary and highly technical linguistic scholarship, much of it too difficult for anyone but the professional linguist or philosopher on the other, an equally substantial body of political writings, accessible to any literate person but often maddeningly simple‐minded. He is also a disturbingly divided intellectual. JUDGED in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today. LANGUAGE AND RESPONSIBILITY By Noam Chomsky.
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