Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

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CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM In a few domains, it has been possible to pose the question of fact in a seri ous way, and inquiry has borne some fruit. In these domains, it has been possible seriously to face the question of what we "innately know," a question raised in the announcement for this meeting. It has been possible to gain some understanding of those parts of our knowledge that come from the original hand of nature, in Hume's terms-from genetic endowment, in the modern version. We quickly learn that these components of our knowledge and under standing are far beyond anything that Hume envisioned. His predecessors appear to have been far closer to the mark: Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the Cambridge Platonists of the 17th century, and the continental rationalists of the same era. The more we investigate, the more we discover that basic elements of thought and language derive from an invariant intellectual endowment, a structure of concepts and principles that provides the framework for experience, interpretation, judgment and understanding. The more we learn about these matters, the more it seems that training is an irrelevance and learning an artefact, except at the margins. It seems that mental structures grow in the mind along their natural, intrinsically determined path, triggered by experi ence and partially modified by it, bur apparently only in fairly superficial ways. This should not be a surprising conclusion. If true, it means that mental organs are like bodily organs-or more accurately, like other bodily organs, for these are organs of the body as well. Despite conventional empiricist and behavior 175 ist dogma, we should not be startled to discover that the mind and brain are like everything else in the natural world, and that it is a highly specific initial endowment that permits the mind to develop rich and articulated systems of knowledge, understanding and judgment, largely shared with others, vastly beyond the reach of any determining experience. Where does this leave us with respect to social theory and action? Still pret ry far away, I am afraid. There is a large gap between what we must establish to ground the choice of action, and what we grasp with any confidence and understanding. Whether the gap can be filled is not clear. No one knows how to do it now, and we are left with the unavoidable necessity to act on the basis of intuition and hope. Mine is that something like the classical liberal doctrine is correct, and that there is no legitimacy to the commissar, the corporate or cultural manager, or any of those who claim the right to manipulate and control us, typically on specious grounds.
CONTRINING THE THREAT OF DEMOCRACY NOTES This talk was delivered in Glasgow, Scotland, in January 1990 at the "Glasgow Conference on Self-Determination and Power: Life Task, Political Task," 1. Davie, The Democratic Intellect (Edinburgh Univerisry Press, 1961), pp. 274f. 2. Marchamont Nedham, 1650, cited by Edmund S. Morgan, Inventing the People (Norton, 1988), p. 79; Hume, p. 1, cited with the qualification just noted. 3 Diego Ribadencira, Boston Globe, January 1, 1990. 4 Galeano, Days and Nights ofLove and Wa r (MOIHhly Review, 1983), 5 For sources and discussion, see my Problems o/Knowledge and Freedom, memorial lectures for Russell delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge (Pantheon, 1971). 6 James Harris, Ralph Cudwonh. See my Cartesian Linguistics (Harper & Row, 1966), and for further discussion, Chaptcr 2 of this book ("Language and Freedom") and in James Peck, ed., The <strong>Chomsky</strong> Reader (Pantheon, 1987).
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CHOMSKY ON ANRRCHISM SELECTED AND E
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CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM PREFACE 5 INTR
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LRNGURGE FIND FREEDOM human spirit
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THREE NOTES ON ANARCHISM (1970) U8
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