Bemmzim
Sun, 10 Aug 2003 12:44:07 -0700
In a message dated 8/3/2003 12:54:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Now, I think both of them are very important figures, > because they are extremely influential. One is the > single most cited living intellectual. The other > edits the most important magazine of th Left. They > influence opinion. But they are also indicators of > opinion - and the fact that people who believe what > they believe are so adulated by a fragment of the > political spectrum - and so completely immune from > criticism from _their own side_, as opposed to from > the other side, tells us something really important Chomsky is one of the most important thinkers of our time but it his contributions to linguistics not his political views that have influence. Ironically his contribution (that humans are born with an inate ablilty to create and use language - a language learning module if you will) has been used more by what would superficically be considered part of the "right wing" approach to human existance. It it is one of the pillars of the nature side of the nature versus nurture debate. Now the characterization of nature advocates (see Steven Pinker,s "The Blank Slate" and Matt Ridley's "Nature Via Nuture" for a more nuanced discussion of this topic) as conservatives is actually unfair but Chomsky's work has not translated into a political agenda. As far as I can tell it is viewed as something seperate from his work and it is his work not his politics that are influential. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l