Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

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CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM glimmerings of understanding of rule-governed behavior and the possibilities for free and creative action within the framework of a system of rules that in parr, at least, reflect intrinsic propenies of human mental organization. It seems to me fair to tegard the contemporaty study oflanguage as in some ways a return to the Humholdtian concept of the fo rm of language: a system of generative processes rooted in innate properties of mind but permitting, in Humboldt's phrase, an infinite use of finite means. Language cannot be described as a system of organization of behavior. Rather, to understand how language is used, we must discover the abstract Humboldtian form of language-its generative grammar, in modern terms. To learn a language is to construct for oneself this abstract system, of course unconsciously. The linguist and psychologist can proceed to study the use and acquisition of language only insofar as he has some grasp of the properties of the system that has been mastered by the person who knows the language. Furthermore, it seems to me that a good case can be made in support of the empirical claim that such a system can be acquired, under the given conditions of time and access, only by a mind that is endowed with certain specific properties that we can now tentatively describe in some detail. As long as we restrict ourselves, conceptually, to the investigation of behavior, its organization, its development through interaction with the environment, we are bound to miss these characteristics of language and mind. Other aspects of human psychology and culture might, in principle, be studied in a similar way. Conceivably, we might in this way develop a social science based on empirically well-founded propositions concerning human nature. JUSt as we study the range of humanly attainable languages, with some success, we might also try to study the forms of arristic expression or, for that matter, scientific knowledge that humans can conceive, and perhaps even the range of ethical systems and social structures in which humans can live and function, given their intrinsic capacities and needs. Perhaps one might go on (Q project a concept of social organization that would-under given conditions of material and spiritual culture-best encoutage and accommodate the fundamental human need-if such it is-for spontaneous initiative, creative work, solidarity, pursuit of social Justice. I do not want to exaggerate, as I no doubt have, the role of investigation of language. Language is the product of human intelligence that is, for the moment, most accessible to study. A rich tradition held language to be a mirror of mind. To some extent, there is surely truth and useful insight in this idea. I am no less puzzled by the topic "language and freedom" than when I began-and no less intrigued. In these speculative and sketchy remarks there are gaps so vast that one might question what would remain, when metaphor and unsubstantiated guess are removed. It is sobering to realize-as I believe we must-how little we have progressed in our knowledge of man and socie- 115
LRNGUAGE AND FREEDOM ty, or even in fo rmulating clearly the problems that might be seriously studied. Bur there are, I think, a few footholds that seem fairly firm. I like to believe that the intensive study of one aspect of human psychology-human language-may contribute to a humanistic social science that will serve, as well, as an insuument for social action. It must, needless to say, be stressed that social action cannot await a firmly established theory of man and society, nor can the validity of the latter be determined by our hopes and moral judgments. The two-speculation and action-must progress as best they can, looking forward to the day when theoretical inquiry will provide a firm guide to the unending, often grim, but never hopeless struggle fo r freedom and social jus [Ice. NOTES This essay was prescmed as a lecture at the University Freedom and the Human Sciences Symposium, Loyola University, Chicago, January 8-9, 1970, and published in Noam <strong>Chomsky</strong>. For Reasons of Slate (New York: New Press, 2003), pp. 387-408. First edition Pantheon, 1970.
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CHOMSKY ON ANRRCHISM SELECTED AND E
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CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM PREFACE 5 INTR
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PREFACE pmential is stunted and def
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OBJECTIVITY AND LIBERAL SCHOLARSHIP
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SEVEN ANARCHISM , MARXISM AND HOPE
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EIGHT GOALS AND VISIONS (1996) In r
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GOALS AND VISIONS Minnesota Press,
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NINE ANARCHISM, INTELLECTUALS AND T
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INTERVIEW WITH BRRRY PRTEMRN I was
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ELEVEN INTERVIEW WITH ZIGA VOD OVN
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