Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in theEast Oak Lane neighborhood ofPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.[20] His parents,William Chomsky and Elsie Simonofsky, were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants.[21] William had fled theRussian Empire from what is present-dayUkraine in 1913 to escape conscription and worked in Baltimoresweatshops and Hebrew elementary schools before attending university.[22][23] Elsie immigrated from the region of what is present-dayBelarus. Both parents' first language wasYiddish although it was taboo to speak it at home; his father spoke English with a foreign accent while his mother spoke a native New York City English dialect.[24] After moving to Philadelphia, William became principal of theCongregation Mikveh Israel religious school and joined theGratz College faculty. He placed great emphasis on educating people so that they would be "well integrated, free and independent in their thinking, concerned about improving and enhancing the world, and eager to participate in making life more meaningful and worthwhile for all", a mission that shaped and was subsequently adopted by his son.[25] Elsie, who also taught at Mikveh Israel, shared her leftist politics and care for social issues with her sons.[25]
Noam's only sibling, David Eli Chomsky (1934–2021), was born five years later, and worked as a cardiologist in Philadelphia.[25][26] The brothers were close, although David was more easygoing, while Noam could be very competitive. They were raised Jewish, being taughtHebrew and regularly involved with discussing the political theories ofZionism; the family was particularly influenced by theLeft Zionist writings ofAhad Ha'am.[27] He facedantisemitism as a child, particularly from Philadelphia's Irish and German communities.[28]
Chomsky attended the independent,DeweyiteOak Lane Country Day School[29] and Philadelphia'sCentral High School, where he excelled academically and joined various clubs and societies, but was troubled by the school's hierarchical and domineering teaching methods.[30] He also attended Hebrew High School at Gratz College, where his father taught.[31]
Chomsky has described his parents as "normalRoosevelt Democrats" withcenter-left politics, but relatives involved in theInternational Ladies' Garment Workers' Union exposed him tosocialism andfar-left politics.[32] He was substantially influenced by his uncle and the Jewish leftists who frequented his New York City newspaper stand to debate current affairs.[33] Chomsky himself often visited left-wing and anarchist bookstores when visiting his uncle in the city, voraciously reading political literature.[34] He became absorbed in the story of the 1939fall of Barcelona and suppression of theSpanish anarchosyndicalist movement, writing his first article on the topic at the age of 10.[35] That he came to identify with anarchism first rather than another leftist movement, he described as a "lucky accident".[36] Chomsky was firmlyanti-Bolshevik by his early teens.[37]
University: 1945–1955
In 1945, at the age of 16, Chomsky began a general program of study at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where he explored philosophy, logic, and languages and developed a primary interest in learningArabic.[38] Living at home, he funded his undergraduate degree by teaching Hebrew.[39] Frustrated with his experiences at the university, he considered dropping out and moving to akibbutz inMandatory Palestine,[40] but his intellectual curiosity was reawakened through conversations with the linguistZellig Harris, whom he first met in a political circle in 1947. Harris introduced Chomsky to the field of theoretical linguistics and convinced him to major in the subject.[41] Chomsky'sBA honors thesis, "Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew", applied Harris's methods to the language.[42] Chomsky revised this thesis for hisMA, which he received from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951; it was subsequently published as a book.[43] He also developed his interest in philosophy while at university, in particular under the tutelage ofNelson Goodman.[44]
Chomsky befriended two linguists at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—Morris Halle andRoman Jakobson—the latter of whom secured him an assistant professor position there in 1955. At MIT, Chomsky spent half his time on amechanical translation project and half teaching a course on linguistics and philosophy.[61] He described MIT as open to experimentation where he was free to pursue his idiosyncratic interests.[62] MIT promoted him to the position ofassociate professor in 1957, and over the next year he was also a visiting professor atColumbia University.[63] The Chomskys had their first child,Aviva, that same year.[64] He also published his first book on linguistics,Syntactic Structures, a work that radically opposed the dominant Harris–Bloomfield trend in the field.[65] Responses to Chomsky's ideas ranged from indifference to hostility, and his work proved divisive and caused "significant upheaval" in the discipline.[66] The linguistJohn Lyons later asserted thatSyntactic Structures "revolutionized the scientific study of language".[67] From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was aNational Science Foundation fellow at theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey.[68]
TheGreat Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Chomsky began working at MIT in 1955.Portrait of Chomsky,c. 1961
Chomsky's provocative critique ofB. F. Skinner, who viewed language as entirely learned behavior, and that critique's challenge to the dominant behaviorist paradigm thrust Chomsky into the limelight. Chomsky argued that behaviorism underplayed the role of human creativity in learning language and overplayed the role of external conditions in influencing verbal behavior.[69] He proceeded to found MIT's graduate program in linguistics with Halle. In 1961, Chomskyreceived tenure and became afull professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics.[70] He was appointed plenary speaker at the NinthInternational Congress of Linguists, held in 1962 inCambridge, Massachusetts, which established him as thede facto spokesperson of American linguistics.[71] Between 1963 and 1965 he consulted on a military-sponsored project to teach computers to understand natural English commands from military generals.[72]
[I]t does not require very far-reaching, specialized knowledge to perceive that the United States was invading South Vietnam. And, in fact, to take apart the system of illusions and deception which functions to prevent understanding of contemporary reality [is] not a task that requires extraordinary skill or understanding. It requires the kind of normal skepticism and willingness to apply one's analytical skills that almost all people have and that they can exercise.
Chomsky joinedprotests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1962, speaking on the subject at small gatherings in churches and homes.[79] His 1967 critique of U.S. involvement, "The Responsibility of Intellectuals", among other contributions toThe New York Review of Books, debuted Chomsky as a public dissident.[80] This essay and other political articles were collected and published in 1969 as part of Chomsky's first political book,American Power and the New Mandarins.[81] He followed this with further political books, includingAt War with Asia (1970),The Backroom Boys (1973),For Reasons of State (1973), andPeace in the Middle East? (1974), published byPantheon Books.[82] These publications led to Chomsky's association with the AmericanNew Left movement,[83] though he thought little of prominent New Left intellectualsHerbert Marcuse andErich Fromm and preferred the company of activists to that of intellectuals.[84] Chomsky remained largely ignored by the mainstream press throughout this period.[85]
Chomsky also became involved in left-wing activism. Chomsky refused to pay half his taxes, publicly supported students whorefused the draft, and was arrested while participating in ananti-warteach-in outside the Pentagon.[86] During this time, Chomsky co-founded the anti-war collectiveRESIST withHans Koning,Mitchell Goodman,Denise Levertov,William Sloane Coffin, andDwight Macdonald.[87] Although he questioned the objectives of the1968 student protests,[88] Chomsky regularly gave lectures to student activist groups and, with his colleagueLouis Kampf, ran undergraduate courses on politics at MIT independently of the conservative-dominatedpolitical science department.[89] When student activists campaigned to stop weapons and counterinsurgency research at MIT, Chomsky was sympathetic but felt that the research should remain under MIT's oversight and limited to systems of deterrence and defense.[90] Chomsky has acknowledged that his MIT lab's funding at this time came from the military.[91] He later said he considered resigning from MIT during the Vietnam War.[92] There has since been a wide-ranging debate about what effects Chomsky's employment at MIT had on his political and linguistic ideas.[93]
External images
Chomsky participating in the anti-Vietnam WarMarch on the Pentagon, October 21, 1967
Chomsky's anti-war activism led to his arrest on multiple occasions and he was on PresidentRichard Nixon's master list of political opponents.[94] Chomsky was aware of the potential repercussions of his civil disobedience, and his wife began studying for her own doctorate in linguistics to support the family in the event of Chomsky's imprisonment or joblessness.[95] Chomsky's scientific reputation insulated him from administrative action based on his beliefs.[96] In 1970 he visited southeast Asia to lecture at Vietnam'sHanoi University of Science and Technology and toured war refugee camps inLaos. In 1973 he helped lead a committee commemorating the 50th anniversary of theWar Resisters League.[97]
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Chomsky's linguistic publications expanded and clarified his earlier work, addressing his critics and updating his grammatical theory.[102] His political talks often generated considerable controversy, particularly when he criticized the Israeli government and military.[103] In the early 1970s Chomsky began collaborating withEdward S. Herman, who had also published critiques of the U.S. war in Vietnam.[104] Together they wroteCounter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths in Fact & Propaganda, a book that criticized U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia and the mainstream media's failure to cover it. Warner Modular published it in 1973, butits parent company disapproved of the book's contents and ordered all copies destroyed.[105]
While mainstream publishing options proved elusive, Chomsky found support fromMichael Albert'sSouth End Press, an activist-oriented publishing company.[106] In 1979, South End published Chomsky and Herman's revisedCounter-Revolutionary Violence as the two-volumeThe Political Economy of Human Rights,[107] which compares U.S. media reactions to theCambodian genocide and theIndonesian occupation of East Timor. It argues that because Indonesia was a U.S. ally, U.S. media ignored the East Timorese situation while focusing on events in Cambodia, a U.S. enemy.[108] Chomsky's response included two testimonials before the United Nations'Special Committee on Decolonization, successful encouragement for American media to cover the occupation, and meetings with refugees inLisbon.[109] Marxist academicSteven Lukes most prominently publicly accused Chomsky of betraying his anarchist ideals and acting as an apologist for Cambodian leaderPol Pot.[110] Herman said that the controversy "imposed a serious personal cost" on Chomsky,[111] who considered the personal criticism less important than the evidence that "mainstream intelligentsia suppressed or justified the crimes of their own states".[112]
Chomsky had long publicly criticizedNazism, andtotalitarianism more generally, but his commitment to freedom of speech led him to defend the right of French historianRobert Faurisson to advocate a position widely characterized asHolocaust denial. Without Chomsky's knowledge, his plea for Faurisson's freedom of speech was published as the preface to the latter's 1980 bookMémoire en défense contre ceux qui m'accusent de falsifier l'histoire.[113] Chomsky was widely condemned for defending Faurisson,[114] and France's mainstream press accused Chomsky of being a Holocaust denier himself, refusing to publish his rebuttals to their accusations.[115] Critiquing Chomsky's position, sociologistWerner Cohn later published an analysis of the affair titledPartners in Hate: Noam Chomsky and the Holocaust Deniers.[116] The Faurisson affair had a lasting, damaging effect on Chomsky's career,[117] especially in France.[118]
In 1985, during theNicaraguan Contra War—in which the U.S. supported thecontra militia against theSandinista government—Chomsky traveled toManagua to meet with workers' organizations and refugees of the conflict, giving public lectures on politics and linguistics.[119] Many of these lectures were published in 1987 asOn Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures.[120] In 1983 he publishedThe Fateful Triangle, which argued that the U.S. had continually used theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict for its own ends.[121] In 1988, Chomsky visited thePalestinian territories to witness the impact of Israeli occupation.[122]
Chomsky and Herman'sManufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) outlines theirpropaganda model for understanding mainstream media. Even in countries without official censorship, they argued, the news is censored through five filters that greatly influence both what and how news is presented.[123] The book receiveda 1992 film adaptation.[124] In 1989, Chomsky publishedNecessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies, in which he suggests that a worthwhile democracy requires that its citizens undertake intellectual self-defense against the media and elite intellectual culture that seeks to control them.[125] By the 1980s, Chomsky's students had become prominent linguists who, in turn, expanded and revised his linguistic theories.[126]
In the 1990s, Chomsky embraced political activism to a greater degree than before.[127] Retaining his commitment to the cause of East Timorese independence, in 1995 he visited Australia to talk on the issue at the behest of the East Timorese Relief Association and the National Council for East Timorese Resistance.[128] The lectures he gave on the subject were published asPowers and Prospects in 1996.[128] As a result of the international publicity Chomsky generated, his biographer Wolfgang Sperlich opined that he did more to aid the cause of East Timorese independence than anyone but the investigative journalistJohn Pilger.[129] After East Timor attained independence from Indonesia in 1999, the Australian-ledInternational Force for East Timor arrived as a peacekeeping force; Chomsky was critical of this, believing it was designed to secure Australian access to East Timor's oil and gas reserves under theTimor Gap Treaty.[130]
Chomsky was widely interviewed after theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001 as the American public attempted to make sense of the attacks.[131] He argued that the ensuingWar on Terror was not a new development but a continuation of U.S. foreign policy and concomitant rhetoric since at least the Reagan era.[132] He gave theD.T. Lakdawala Memorial Lecture in New Delhi in 2001,[133] and in 2003 visited Cuba at the invitation of the Latin American Association of Social Scientists.[134] Chomsky's 2003Hegemony or Survival articulated what he called the United States' "imperialgrand strategy" and critiqued theIraq War and other aspects of the war on terror.[135] Chomsky toured internationally with greater regularity during this period.[134]
Retirement
Chomsky retired from MIT in 2002,[136] but continued to conduct research and seminars on campus as anemeritus.[137] That same year he visited Turkey to attend the trial of a publisher who had been accused of treason for printing one of Chomsky's books; Chomsky insisted on being aco-defendant and amid international media attention, theSecurity Courts dropped the charge on the first day.[138] During that trip Chomsky visited Kurdish areas of Turkey and spoke out in favor of the Kurds' human rights.[138] A supporter of theWorld Social Forum, he attended its conferences in Brazil in both 2002 and 2003, also attending the Forum event in India.[139]
Chomsky discussing ecology, ethics andanarchism in 2014
In 2015, Chomsky and his wife purchased a residence inSão Paulo, Brazil, and began splitting their time between Brazil and the U.S.[142] Chomsky taught a short-term politics course at theUniversity of Arizona in 2017.[143] He was later hired as the Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice, a part-time professorship in the linguistics department with duties including teaching and public seminars.[144] His salary was covered by philanthropic donations.[145] After a stroke in June 2023, Chomsky moved to Brazil full-time.[142]
Linguistic theory
What started as purely linguistic research ... has led, through involvement in political causes and an identification with an older philosophic tradition, to no less than an attempt to formulate an overall theory of man. The roots of this are manifest in the linguistic theory ... The discovery of cognitive structures common to the human race but only to humans (species specific), leads quite easily to thinking of unalienable human attributes.
The basis of Chomsky's linguistic theory lies inbiolinguistics, the linguistic school that holds that the principles underpinning the structure of language are biologically preset in the human mind and hence genetically inherited.[147] He argues that all humans share the same underlying linguistic structure, irrespective of sociocultural differences.[148] In adopting this position Chomsky rejects theradical behaviorist psychology ofB. F. Skinner, who viewed speech, thought, and all behavior as a completely learned product of the interactions between organisms and their environments. Accordingly, Chomsky argues that language is a unique evolutionary development of the human species and distinguished from modes of communication used by any other animal species.[149][150] Chomsky argues that hisnativist, internalist view of language is consistent with the philosophical school of "rationalism" and contrasts with the anti-nativist, externalist view of language consistent with the philosophical school of "empiricism",[151] which contends that all knowledge, including language, comes from external stimuli.[146] Historians have disputed Chomsky's claim about rationalism on the basis that his theory of innate grammar excludespropositional knowledge and instead focuses on innate learning capacities or structures.[152]
Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that syntactic knowledge is partially inborn, implying that children need only learn certain language-specific features of theirnative languages. He bases his argument on observations about humanlanguage acquisition and describes a "poverty of the stimulus": an enormous gap between the linguistic stimuli to which children are exposed and the richlinguistic competence they attain. For example, although children are exposed to only a very small and finite subset of the allowablesyntactic variants within their first language, they somehow acquire the highly organized and systematic ability to understand and producean infinite number of sentences, including ones that have never before been uttered, in that language.[153] To explain this, Chomsky proposed that the primary linguistic data must be supplemented by aninnate linguistic capacity. Furthermore, while a human baby and a kitten are both capable ofinductive reasoning, if they are exposed to exactly the same linguistic data, the human will always acquire the ability to understand and produce language, while the kitten will never acquire either ability. Chomsky referred to this difference in capacity as thelanguage acquisition device, and suggested that linguists needed to determine both what that device is and what constraints it imposes on the range of possible human languages. The universal features that result from these constraints would constitute "universal grammar".[154][155][156] Multiple researchers have challenged universal grammar on the grounds of the evolutionary infeasibility of its genetic basis for language,[157] the lack of crosslinguistic surface universals,[158] and the unproven link between innate/universal structures and the structures of specific languages.[159]Michael Tomasello has challenged Chomsky's theory of innate syntactic knowledge as based on theory and not behavioral observation.[160] The empirical basis of poverty of the stimulus arguments has been challenged byGeoffrey Pullum and others, leading to back-and-forth debate in thelanguage acquisition literature.[161][162] Recent work has also suggested that somerecurrent neural network architectures can learn hierarchical structure without an explicit constraint.[163]
Chomsky is generally credited with launching the research tradition ofgenerative grammar, which aims to explain thecognitive basis of language by formulating and testing explicit models of humans' subconscious grammatical knowledge. Generative grammar proposes models of language consisting of explicit rule systems, which make testablefalsifiable predictions. The goal of generative grammar is sometimes described as answering the question "What is that that you know when you know a language?"[164][165]
Within generative grammar, Chomsky's initial model was calledtransformational grammar. Chomsky developed transformational grammar in the mid-1950s, whereupon it became the dominant syntactic theory in linguistics for two decades.[166] "Transformations" are syntactic rules that derivesurface structure fromdeep structure, which was often considered to reflect the structure of meaning.[146] Transformational grammar later developed into the 1980sgovernment and binding theory and thence into theminimalist program.[166] This research focused on theprinciples and parameters framework, which explained children's ability to learn any language by filling open parameters (a set of universal grammar principles) that adapt as the child encounters linguistic data.[167] The minimalist program, initiated by Chomsky,[168] asks which minimal principles and parameters theory fits most elegantly, naturally, and simply.[167]
Chomsky is commonly credited with inventing transformational-generative grammar, but his original contribution was considered modest when he first published his theory. In his 1955 dissertation and his 1957 textbookSyntactic Structures, he presented recent developments in the analysis formulated byZellig Harris, who was Chomsky's PhD supervisor, and byCharles F. Hockett.[c] Their method derives from the work of the structural linguistLouis Hjelmslev, who introducedalgorithmic grammar to general linguistics.[d] Based on this rule-based notation of grammars, Chomsky grouped logically possible phrase-structure grammar types into a series of four nested subsets and increasingly complex types, together known as theChomsky hierarchy. This classification remains relevant toformal language theory[169] andtheoretical computer science, especiallyprogramming language theory,[170]compiler construction, andautomata theory.[171] Chomsky'sSyntactic Structures became, beyond generative linguistics as such, a catalyst for connecting what inHjelmslev's andJespersen's time was the beginnings ofstructural linguistics, which has becomecognitive linguistics.[172]
The second major area to which Chomsky has contributed—and surely the best known in terms of the number of people in his audience and the ease of understanding what he writes and says—is his work on sociopolitical analysis; political, social, and economic history; and critical assessment of current political circumstance. In Chomsky's view, although those in power might—and do—try to obscure their intentions and to defend their actions in ways that make them acceptable to citizens, it is easy for anyone who is willing to be critical and consider the facts to discern what they are up to.
Chomsky is a prominent political dissident.[e] His political views have changed little since his childhood,[174] when he was influenced by the emphasis on political activism that was ingrained in Jewish working-class tradition.[175] He usually identifies as ananarcho-syndicalist or alibertarian socialist.[176] He views these positions not as precise political theories but as ideals that he thinks best meet human needs: liberty, community, and freedom of association.[177] Unlike some other socialists, such as Marxists, Chomsky believes that politics lies outside the remit of science,[178] but he still roots his ideas about an ideal society in empirical data and empirically justified theories.[179]
In Chomsky's view, the truth about political realities is systematically distorted or suppressed by an elitecorporatocracy, which uses corporate media, advertising, andthink tanks to promote its own propaganda. His work seeks to reveal such manipulations and the truth they obscure.[180] Chomsky believes this web of falsehood can be broken by "common sense", critical thinking, and understanding the roles of self-interest and self-deception,[181] and that intellectuals abdicate their moral responsibility to tell the truth about the world in fear of losing prestige and funding.[182] He argues that, as such an intellectual, it is his duty to use hissocial privilege, resources, and training to aid popular democracy movements in their struggles.[183]
Chomsky has been a prominent critic ofAmerican imperialism,[189] but is not a pacifist, believingWorld War II was justified as America's last defensive war.[190] He believes thatU.S. foreign policy's basic principle is the establishment of "open societies" that are economically and politically controlled by the U.S. and where U.S.-based businesses can prosper.[191] He argues that the U.S. seeks to suppress any movements within these countries that are not compliant with U.S. interests and to ensure that U.S.-friendly governments are placed in power.[182] When discussing current events, he emphasizes their place within a wider historical perspective.[192] He believes that official, sanctioned historical accounts of U.S. and British extraterritorial operations have consistently whitewashed these nations' actions in order to present them as having benevolent motives in either spreading democracy or, in older instances, spreading Christianity; by criticizing these accounts, he seeks to correct them.[193] Prominent examples he regularly cites are the actions of the British Empire in India and Africa and U.S. actions in Vietnam, the Philippines, Latin America, and the Middle East.[193]
Chomsky's political work has centered heavily on criticizing the actions of the United States.[192] He has said he focuses on the U.S. because the country has militarily and economically dominated the world during his lifetime and because itsliberal democratic electoral system allows the citizenry to influence government policy.[194] His hope is that, by spreading awareness of the impact U.S. foreign policies have on the populations affected by them, he can sway the populations of the U.S. and other countries into opposing the policies.[193] He urges people to criticize their governments' motivations, decisions, and actions, to accept responsibility for their own thoughts and actions, and to apply the same standards to others as to themselves.[195]
Chomsky has been critical of U.S. involvement in theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, arguing that it has consistently blocked a peaceful settlement.[182] He also criticizes the U.S.'s close ties with Saudi Arabia and involvement inSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, highlighting that Saudi Arabia has "one of the most grotesque human rights records in the world".[196]
Chomsky called theRussian invasion of Ukraine a criminal act of aggression and noted thatRussia was committing major war crimes in the country. He considered support for Ukraine's self-defense legitimate and said Ukraine should be given enough military aid to defend itself, but not enough to cause "an escalation".[197] His criticism of the war focused on the United States.[197] He alleged that the U.S. rejected any compromise with Russia and that this might have provoked the invasion.[197] According to Chomsky, the U.S. was arming Ukraine only to weaken Russia, and Ukrainian requests for heavy weaponry were untrue "Western propaganda", despite Ukraine's PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly asking for them.[198] More than a year into the invasion, Chomsky argued that Russia was waging the war "more humanely" than the U.S. did theinvasion of Iraq.[199]
In his youth, Chomsky developed a dislike ofcapitalism and the pursuit of material wealth.[200] At the same time, he developed a disdain forauthoritarian socialism, as represented by theMarxist–Leninist policies of the Soviet Union.[201] Rather than accepting the common view among U.S. economists that a spectrum exists between total state ownership of the economy and total private ownership, he instead suggests that a spectrum should be understood between total democratic control of the economy and total autocratic control (whether state or private).[202] He argues that Western capitalist countries are not really democratic,[203] because, in his view, a truly democratic society is one in which all persons have a say in public economic policy.[204] He has stated his opposition toruling elites, among them institutions like theIMF,World Bank, andGATT (precursor to theWTO).[205]
Chomsky highlights that, since the 1970s,the U.S. has become increasingly economically unequal as a result of the repeal of various financial regulations and the unilateral rescinding of theBretton Woods financial control agreement by the U.S.[206] He characterizes the U.S. as ade factoone-party state, viewing both theRepublican Party andDemocratic Party as manifestations of a single "Business Party" controlled by corporate and financial interests.[207] Chomsky highlights that, within Western capitalist liberal democracies, at least 80% of the population has no control over economic decisions, which are instead in the hands of a management class and ultimately controlled by a small, wealthy elite.[208]
Noting the entrenchment of such an economic system, Chomsky believes that change is possible through the organized cooperation of large numbers of people who understand the problem and know how they want to reorganize the economy more equitably.[208] Acknowledging that corporate domination of media and government stifles any significant change to this system, he sees reason for optimism in historical examples such as the social rejection of slavery as immoral, the advances in women's rights, and the forcing of government to justify invasions.[206] He views violent revolution to overthrow a government as a last resort to be avoided if possible, citing the example of historical revolutions where the population's welfare has worsened as a result of upheaval.[208]
Chomsky sees libertarian socialist and anarcho-syndicalist ideas as the descendants of theclassical liberal ideas of theAge of Enlightenment,[209] arguing that his ideological position revolves around "nourishing the libertarian and creative character of the human being".[210] He envisions ananarcho-syndicalist future with direct worker control of themeans of production and government byworkers' councils, who would select temporary and revocable representatives to meet together at general assemblies.[211] The point of this self-governance is to make each citizen, inThomas Jefferson's words, "a direct participator in the government of affairs".[212] He believes that there will be no need for political parties.[213] By controlling their productive life, he believes that individuals can gain job satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment and purpose.[214] He argues that unpleasant and unpopular jobs could be fully automated, specially remunerated, or communally shared.[215]
Chomsky has said that characterizingIsrael's treatment of the Palestinians as apartheid, similar to the system that existed in South Africa, would be a "gift to Israel", as he has long held that "theOccupied Territories are much worse than South Africa".[219][220] South Africa depended on its black population for labor, but Chomsky argues the same is not true of Israel, which in his view seeks to make the situation for Palestinians under its occupation unlivable, especially in theWest Bank and theGaza Strip, where "atrocities" take place every day.[219] He also argues that, unlike South Africa, Israel has not sought the international community's approval, but rather relies solely on U.S. support.[219] Chomsky has said that the Israeli-ledblockade of theGaza Strip has turned it into a "concentration camp" and expressed fears similar to Israeli intellectualYeshayahu Leibowitz's 1990s warning that the continued occupation of thePalestinian territories could turnIsraeli Jews into "Judeo-Nazis". Chomsky has said that Leibowitz's warning "was a direct reflection of the continued occupation, the humiliation of people, the degradation, and the terrorist attacks by the Israeli government".[221] He has also called the U.S. a violent state that exports violence by supporting Israeli "atrocities" against the Palestinians and said that listening to American mainstream media, includingCBS, is like listening to "Israeli propaganda agencies".[222]
In his 1983 bookThe Fateful Triangle, Chomsky criticized thePalestine Liberation Organization for its "self-destructiveness" and "suicidal character" and disapproved of its programs of "armed struggle" and "erratic violence". He also criticized the Arab governments as not "decent".[228][229] Given what he has described as his very Jewish upbringing with deeply Zionist activist parents, Chomsky's views have drawn controversy and criticism. They are rooted in thekibbutzim and socialist binational cooperation.[230] In a 2014 interview onDemocracy Now!, Chomsky said that the charter ofHamas, which calls for Israel's destruction, "means practically nothing", having been created "by a small group of people under siege, under attack in 1988". He compared it to the electoral program of theLikud party, which, he said, "states explicitly that there can never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. And they not only state it in their charter, that's a call for the destruction of Palestine, explicit call for it".[220]
Chomsky's political writings have largely focused on ideology,social and political power, mass media, and state policy.[231] One of his best-known works,Manufacturing Consent, dissects the media's role in reinforcing and acquiescing to state policies across the political spectrum while marginalizing contrary perspectives. Chomsky asserts that this version of censorship, by government-guided "free market" forces, is subtler and harder to undermine than was the equivalent propaganda system in the Soviet Union.[232] As he argues, the mainstream press is corporate-owned and thus reflects corporate priorities and interests.[233] Acknowledging that many American journalists are dedicated and well-meaning, he argues that the mass media's choices of topics and issues, the unquestioned premises on which that coverage rests, and the range of opinions expressed are all constrained to reinforce the state's ideology:[234] although mass media will criticize individual politicians and political parties, it will not undermine the wider state-corporate nexus of which it is a part.[235] As evidence, he highlights that the U.S. mass media does not employ any socialist journalists or political commentators.[236] He also points to examples of important news stories that the U.S. mainstream media has ignored because reporting on them would reflect badly upon the country, including the murder of Black PantherFred Hampton with possibleFBI involvement, the massacres in Nicaragua perpetrated by U.S.-fundedContras, and the constant reporting on Israeli deaths without equivalent coverage of the far larger number of Palestinian deaths in that conflict.[237] To remedy this situation, Chomsky calls for grassroots democratic control and involvement of the media.[238]
Chomsky considers mostconspiracy theories fruitless, distracting substitutes for thinking about policy formation in an institutional framework, where individual manipulation is secondary to broader social imperatives.[239] He separates his Propaganda Model from conspiracy in that he is describing institutions following their natural imperatives rather than collusive forces with secret controls.[240] Instead of supporting the educational system as an antidote, he believes that most education is counterproductive.[241] Chomsky describesmass education as a system solely intended to turn farmers from independent producers into unthinking industrial employees.[241]
Reactions of critics and counter-criticism: 1980s–present
For 40 years Noam Chomsky has turned out book after book, pamphlet after pamphlet and speech after speech with one message, and one message alone: America is theGreat Satan; it is the fount of evil in the world. In Chomsky's demented universe, America is responsible not only for its own bad deeds, but for the bad deeds of others, including those of the terrorists who struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In this attitude he is the medium for all those who now search the ruins of Manhattan not for the victims and the American dead, but for the "root causes" of the catastrophe that befell them.
For theconservative public policythink tank theHoover Institution, Peter Schweizer wrote in January 2006, "Chomsky favors the estate tax and massive income redistribution—just not the redistribution of his income." Schweizer criticized Chomsky for setting up an estate plan and protecting his own intellectual property as it relates to his published works, as well as the high speaking fees that Chomsky received on a regular basis, around $9,000–$12,000 per talk at that time.[244][245]
Chomsky has been accused[by whom?] of treating socialist or communist regimes with credulity and examining capitalist regimes with greater scrutiny or criticism:[246]
Chomsky's analysis of U.S. actions plunged deep into dark U.S. machinations, but when traveling among the Communists he rested content with appearances. The countryside outside Hanoi, he reported inThe New York Review of Books, displayed "a high degree of democratic participation at the village and regional levels." But how could he tell? Chomsky did not speak Vietnamese, and so he depended on government translators, tour guides, and handlers for information. In [Communist] Vietnamese hands, the clear-eyed skepticism turned into willing credulousness.[246]
According toNikolas Kozloff, writing forAl Jazeera in September 2012, Chomsky "has drawn the world's attention to the various misdeeds of the US and its proxies around the world, and for that he deserves credit. Yet, in seeking to avoid controversy at all costs Chomsky has turned into something of an ideologue. Scour the Chomsky web site and you won't find significant discussion of Belarus or Latin America's flirtation with outside authoritarian leaders, for that matter."[247]
Political activistGeorge Monbiot has argued that "Part of the problem is that a kind of cult has developed around Noam Chomsky andJohn Pilger, which cannot believe they could ever be wrong, and produces ever more elaborate conspiracy theories to justify their mistakes."[248]
Defenders of Chomsky have countered that he has been censored or left out of public debate. Claims of this nature date to theReagan era. Writing forThe Washington Post in February 1988,Saul Landau wrote, "It is unhealthy that Chomsky's insights are excluded from the policy debate. His relentless prosecutorial prose, with a hint of Talmudic whine and the rationalist anarchism of Tom Paine, may reflect a justified frustration."[249]
Philosophy
Chomsky has also been active in a number of philosophical fields, includingphilosophy of mind,philosophy of language, andphilosophy of science.[250] In these fields he is credited with ushering in the "cognitive revolution",[250] a significantparadigm shift that rejectedlogical positivism, the prevailing philosophical methodology of the time, and reframed how philosophers think aboutlanguage and themind.[168] Chomsky views the cognitive revolution as rooted in 17th-centuryrationalist ideals.[251] His position—the idea that the mind contains inherent structures to understand language, perception, and thought—has more in common with rationalism than behaviorism.[252] He named one of his key worksCartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought (1966).[251] This sparked criticism from historians and philosophers who disagreed with Chomsky's interpretations of classical sources and use of philosophical terminology.[f] In the philosophy of language, Chomsky is particularly known for his criticisms of the notion of reference and meaning in human language and his perspective on the nature and function of mental representations.[253]
Chomsky's famous1971 debate onhuman nature with the French philosopherMichel Foucault was a symbolic clash of theanalytic andcontinental philosophy traditions, represented by Chomsky and Foucault, respectively.[100] It showed what appeared to be irreconcilable differences between two moral and intellectual luminaries of the 20th century. Foucault held that any definition of human nature is connected to our present-day conceptions of ourselves; Chomsky held that human nature contained universals such as a common standard of moral justice as deduced through reason.[254] Chomsky criticizedpostmodernism andFrench philosophy generally, arguing that the obscure language of postmodern, leftist philosophers gives little aid to the working classes.[255] He has also debated analytic philosophers, includingTyler Burge,Donald Davidson,Michael Dummett,Saul Kripke,Thomas Nagel,Hilary Putnam,Willard Van Orman Quine, andJohn Searle.[168]
Chomsky's contributions spanintellectual and world history, including the history of philosophy.[256] Irony is a recurring characteristic of his writing, such as rhetorically implying that his readers already know something to be true, which engages the reader more actively in assessing the veracity of his claims.[257]
Personal life
Wasserman and Chomsky in 2014
Chomsky endeavors to separate his family life, linguistic scholarship, and political activism from each other.[258] An intensely private person,[259] he is uninterested in appearances and the fame his work has brought him.[260] McGilvray suggests that Chomsky is not motivated by a desire for fame, but impelled to tell what he perceives as the truth and a desire to aid others in doing so.[261] Chomsky acknowledges that his income affords him a privileged life compared to the majority of the world's population;[262] nevertheless, he characterizes himself as a "worker", albeit one who uses his intellect as his employable skill.[263] He reads four or five newspapers daily; in the U.S., he subscribes toThe Boston Globe,The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal,Financial Times, andThe Christian Science Monitor.[264] Chomsky is not religious but has expressed approval of forms of religion such asliberation theology.[265]
Chomsky is known to use charged language ("corrupt", "fascist", "fraudulent") when describing established political and academic figures, which can polarize his audience but is in keeping with his belief that much scholarship is self-serving.[266] His colleagueSteven Pinker has said that Chomsky "portrays people who disagree with him as stupid or evil, using withering scorn in his rhetoric", and that this contributes to the extreme reactions he receives.[267] Chomsky avoidsacademic conferences, including left-oriented ones such as the Socialist Scholars Conference, preferring to speak to activist groups or hold university seminars for mass audiences.[268] His approach to academic freedom has led him to support MIT academics whose actions he deplores; in 1969, when Chomsky heard thatWalt Rostow, a major architect of the Vietnam war, wanted to return to work at MIT, Chomsky threatened "to protest publicly" if Rostow were denied a position at MIT. In 1989, when Pentagon adviserJohn Deutch applied to be president of MIT, Chomsky supported his candidacy. Later, when Deutch became head of the CIA,The New York Times quoted Chomsky as saying, "He has more honesty and integrity than anyone I've ever met.... If somebody's got to be running the CIA, I'm glad it's him."[269]
In 2023, Chomsky suffered a massive stroke and was flown to a hospital inSão Paulo, Brazil, to recuperate.[274] He can no longer walk or communicate, making his return to public life improbable,[275] but he continues to follow current events such as theGaza war.[274] He was discharged in June 2024 to continue his recovery at home.[273] The same month, Chomskytrended on social media amid false reports of his death. Periodicals retractedpremature obituaries.[273]
Emails related to the activities of convicted child sex offenderJeffrey Epstein released by theHouse Oversight Committee in November 2025 revealed that Chomsky befriended him after his 2008 conviction; remained in contact with him at least through 2017; and called him a “highly valued friend.”[276][277][278]
Reception and influence
[Chomsky's] voice is heard in academia beyond linguistics and philosophy: from computer science to neuroscience, from anthropology to education, mathematics and literary criticism. If we include Chomsky's political activism then the boundaries become quite blurred, and it comes as no surprise that Chomsky is increasingly seen as enemy number one by those who inhabit that wide sphere of reactionary discourse and action.
Chomsky has been a defining Western intellectual figure, central to the field of linguistics and definitive in cognitive science, computer science, philosophy, and psychology.[280] In addition to being known as one of the most important intellectuals of his time,[g] Chomsky has a dual legacy as a leader and luminary in both linguistics and the realm ofpolitical dissent.[281] Despite his academic success, his political viewpoints and activism have resulted in his being distrusted by mainstream media, and he is regarded as being "on the outer margin of acceptability".[282] Chomsky's public image and social reputation often color his work's public reception.[8]
In academia
McGilvray observes that Chomsky inaugurated the "cognitive revolution" in linguistics,[283] and that he is largely responsible for establishing the field as a formal,natural science,[284] moving it away from the procedural form ofstructural linguistics dominant during the mid-20th century.[285] As such, some have called Chomsky "the father of modern linguistics".[b] Linguist John Lyons further remarked that within a few decades of publication, Chomskyan linguistics had become "the most dynamic and influential" school of thought in the field.[286] By the 1970s his work had also come to exert a considerable influence on philosophy,[287] and aMinnesota State University Moorhead poll rankedSyntactic Structures as the single most important work incognitive science.[288] In addition, his work inautomata theory and the Chomsky hierarchy have become well known incomputer science, and he is much cited incomputational linguistics.[289][290][291]
Chomsky's criticisms of behaviorism contributed substantially to the decline ofbehaviorist psychology;[292] in addition, he is generally regarded as one of the primary founders of the field of cognitive science.[293][250] Some arguments inevolutionary psychology are derived from his research results;[294]Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was the subject of a study inanimal language acquisition at Columbia University, was named after Chomsky in reference to his view of language acquisition as a uniquely human ability.[295]
Chomsky is among the most cited authors living or dead.[h] He was cited within theArts and Humanities Citation Index more often than any other living scholar from 1980 to 1992.[301] Chomsky was also extensively cited in theSocial Sciences Citation Index andScience Citation Index during the same period. The librarian who conducted the research said that the statistics show that "he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines... it seems that you can't write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky."[280] As a result of his influence, there are dueling camps of Chomskyan and non-Chomskyan linguistics. Their disputes are often acrimonious.[302] Additionally, according to journalistMaya Jaggi, Chomsky is among the most quoted sources in the humanities, ranking alongsideMarx,Shakespeare andthe Bible.[267]
In politics
Chomsky cautions against ignoring the threats of climate change and nuclear war in the wake ofDonald Trump's election, in a 2017 speech.
Chomsky's status as the "most-quoted living author" is credited to his political writings, which vastly outnumber his writings on linguistics.[303] Chomsky biographer Wolfgang B. Sperlich characterizes him as "one of the most notable contemporary champions of the people";[259] journalistJohn Pilger has described him as a "genuine people's hero; an inspiration for struggles all over the world for that basic decency known as freedom. To a lot of people in the margins—activists and movements—he's unfailingly supportive."[267]Arundhati Roy has called him "one of the greatest, most radical public thinkers of our time",[304] andEdward Said thought him "one of the most significant challengers of unjust power and delusions".[267]Fred Halliday has said that by the start of the 21st century Chomsky had become a "guru" for the world's anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements.[267] The propaganda model of media criticism that he and Herman developed has been widely accepted in radical media critiques and adopted to some level in mainstream criticism of the media,[305] also exerting a significant influence on the growth ofalternative media, including radio, publishers, and the Internet, which in turn have helped to disseminate his work.[306]
Despite this broad influence, university departments devoted to history and political science rarely include Chomsky's work on their undergraduate syllabi.[307] Critics have argued that despite publishing widely on social and political issues, Chomsky has no formal expertise in these areas; he has responded that such issues are not as complex as manysocial scientists claim and that almost everyone is able to comprehend them regardless of whether they have been academically trained to do so.[183] Some have responded to these criticisms by questioning the critics' motives and their understanding of Chomsky's ideas. Sperlich, for instance, says that Chomsky has been vilified by corporate interests, particularly in the mainstream press.[137] Likewise, according to McGilvray, many of Chomsky's critics "do not bother quoting his work or quote out of context, distort, and create straw men that cannot be supported by Chomsky's text".[183]
Chomsky's far-reaching criticisms of U.S. foreign policy and the legitimacy of U.S. power have raised controversy. A document obtained pursuant to aFreedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the U.S. government revealed that theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) monitored his activities and for years denied doing so. The CIA also destroyed its files on Chomsky at some point, possibly in violation of federal law.[312] He has often received undercover police protection at MIT and when speaking on the Middle East but has refused uniformed police protection.[313] German news magazineDer Spiegel described Chomsky as "the Ayatollah of anti-American hatred",[137] while Americanconservative commentatorDavid Horowitz called him "the most devious, the most dishonest and ... the most treacherous intellect in America", whose work is infused with "anti-American dementia" and evidences his "pathological hatred of his own country".[314]
Chomsky's criticism of Israel has led to his being called a traitor to the Jewish people and anantisemite.[315] Criticizing Chomsky's defense of the right of individuals to engage in Holocaust denial on the grounds that freedom of speech must be extended to all viewpoints,Werner Cohn called Chomsky "the most important patron" of theneo-Nazi movement.[316] TheAnti-Defamation League (ADL) called him a Holocaust denier,[317] describing him as a "dupe of intellectual pride so overweening that he is incapable of making distinctions between totalitarian and democratic societies, between oppressors and victims".[317] In turn, Chomsky has claimed that the ADL is dominated by "Stalinist types" who oppose democracy in Israel.[315] The lawyerAlan Dershowitz has called Chomsky a "false prophet of the left";[318] Chomsky called Dershowitz "a complete liar" who is on "a crazed jihad, dedicating much of his life to trying to destroy my reputation".[319] In early 2016, PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey publicly rebuked Chomsky after he signed an open letter condemning Erdoğan for hisanti-Kurdish repression and double standards on terrorism.[320] Chomsky accused Erdoğan of hypocrisy, noting that Erdoğan supportsal-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate,[321] theal-Nusra Front.[320]
In 1970, the LondonTimes named Chomsky one of the "makers of the twentieth century".[146] He was voted the world's leading public intellectual in The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll jointly conducted by American magazineForeign Policy and British magazineProspect.[322]New Statesman readers listed Chomsky among the world's foremost heroes in 2006.[323] In 2011, theUS Peace Memorial Foundation awardedThe US Peace Prize to Chomsky, "whose antiwar activities for five decades both educate and inspire."[324]
In 2011, the US Peace Memorial Foundation awarded Chomsky the US Peace Prize for anti-war activities over five decades.[339] For his work in human rights, peace, and social criticism, he received the 2011Sydney Peace Prize,[340] theSretenje Order in 2015,[341] the 2017Seán MacBride Peace Prize[342] and the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award.[328]
Fox 1998: "Mr. Chomsky ... is the father of modern linguistics and remains the field's most influential practitioner."
Tymoczko & Henle 2004, p. 101: "As the founder of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky, observed, each of the following sequences of words is nonsense ..."
Tanenhaus 2016: "At 87, Noam Chomsky, the founder of modern linguistics, remains a vital presence in American intellectual life."
Smith 2004, pp. 107 "Chomsky's early work was renowned for its mathematical rigor and he made some contribution to the nascent discipline of mathematical linguistics, in particular the analysis of (formal) languages in terms of what is now known as theChomsky hierarchy."
Koerner 1983, pp. 159: "Characteristically, Harris proposes a transfer of sentences from English to Modern Hebrew... Chomsky's approach to syntax inSyntactic Structures and several years thereafter was not much different from Harris's approach, since the concept of 'deep' or 'underlying structure' had not yet been introduced. The main difference between Harris (1954) and Chomsky (1957) appears to be that the latter is dealing with transfers within one single language only"
Koerner 1978, pp. 41f: "it is worth noting that Chomsky cites Hjelmslev'sProlegomena, which had been translated into English in 1953, since the authors' theoretical argument, derived largely from logic and mathematics, exhibits noticeable similarities."
Seuren 1998, pp. 166: "Both Hjelmslev and Harris were inspired by the mathematical notion of an algorithm as a purely formal production system for a set of strings of symbols.... it is probably accurate to say that Hjelmslev was the first to try and apply it to the generation of strings of symbols in natural language"
Hjelmslev 1969Prolegomena to a Theory of Language. Danish original 1943; first English translation 1954.
Hamans & Seuren 2010, p. 377: "Having achieved a unique position of supremacy in the theory of syntax and having exploited that position far beyond the narrow circles of professional syntacticians, he felt the need to shore up his theory with the authority of history. It is shown that this attempt, resulting mainly in his Cartesian Linguistics of 1966, was widely, and rightly, judged to be a radical failure"
McNeill 2014: "[Chomsky is] often dubbed one of the world's most important intellectuals..."
Campbell 2005: "Noam Chomsky, the linguistics professor who has become one of the most outspoken critics of US foreign policy, has won a poll that names him as the world's top public intellectual."
Robinson 1979: "Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today."
Flint 1995: "The man once called the most important intellectual alive keeps his office in... the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
Knight 2016, p. 2: "In 1992, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index ranked him as the most cited person alive (the Index's top ten being Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, Freud, Chomsky, Hegel and Cicero)."
Babe 2015, p. xvii: "[Chomsky] was the most cited living scholar between 1980 and 1992 (according to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index)."
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^Wasow, Thomas (2003)."Generative Grammar"(PDF). In Aronoff, Mark; Ress-Miller, Janie (eds.).The Handbook of Linguistics. Blackwell. pp. 296, 311.doi:10.1002/9780470756409.ch12.ISBN978-0-631-20497-8....generative grammar is not so much a theory as a family or theories, or a school of thought... [having] shared assumptions and goals, widely used formal devices, and generally accepted empirical results
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^abc"Chomsky on Israeli apartheid, celebrity activists, BDS and the one-state solution".Ramzy Baroud. Middle East Monitor. June 27, 2022. RetrievedDecember 15, 2023.Chomsky believes that calling Israeli policies towards the Palestinians "apartheid" is actually a "gift to Israel"; at least, if by apartheid one refers to South African-style apartheid. "I have held for a long time that the Occupied Territories are much worse than South Africa," the professor explained.
^"Chomsky to i24NEWS: 'Judeo-Nazi tendencies in Israel a product of occupation'".i24news. November 14, 2018. RetrievedDecember 15, 2023."Leibowitz warned that if the occupation continues, Israeli Jews are going to turn into what he called, Judeo-Nazis. It's a pretty strong term to use in Israel. Most people couldn't get away with that but he did. It will happen, he argued, simply by the dynamics of occupation," Chomsky told i24NEWS. "If you have your jackboot on somebody's neck, you have to find a way to justify it. So you blame the victims. Leibowitz's warning was a direct reflection of the continued occupation, the humiliation of people, the degradation, and the terrorist attacks by the Israeli government. We have many historical examples of that. Europe has plenty of them. And I think that's what you are seeing in Israel," he explained.
^Cook, Christopher R. (2009). "A Cold Eye Assessment of US Foreign Policy: It's the Policies, Stupid".International Studies Review.11 (3):601–608.doi:10.1111/j.1468-2486.2009.00877.x.ISSN1468-2486.JSTOR40389146.The common critique is that he is often selective about his facts to fit his theories (Collier and Horowitz 2004).
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