10 things you should know about Noam Chomsky
The accolade-bestowed intellectual graces Sydney with his presence for a thought-provoking lecture
First published on . Updated on 4 Nov 2011.
Noam Chomsky was awarded with the Sydney Peace Prize in June this year, with NSW governor Marie Bashir stating this was a result of his “unfailing moral courage and critical analysis of democracy and power.” This month he appears at the Opera House to discuss the problems with knowledge and freedom – a lecture bound to get chins wagging. Not well versed on the prolific thinker? We’ve got your back…
01 Professor Avram Noam Chomsky is widely regarded as the father of modern linguistics and is a major figure within this field, as well as the fields of philosophy, politics, science and psychology.
02 Despite his father being a noted professor and his mother a radical activist, Chomsky attributes his intellectual curiosity to his undereducated uncle who ran a newsstand frequented by arguing academics.
03 Chomsky wrote his first article – concerning the threat of the spread of fascism after the Spanish Civil War – when he was just ten years old.
04 He went on to author more than 100 books on linguistics, computer science and politics, and receive over 40 honorary degrees from universities worldwide, including Cambridge and Harvard.
05 Collectively, his works are some of the most cited sources of all time, and he is presently considered the most cited living author.
06 Heard of generative grammar – the set of rules that will predict how a sentence will be structured? Chomsky came up with that.
07 He was a leading opponent to the US involvement in the Vietnam War and has continued to publically criticise his country’s foreign policy.
08 Anti-war protests resulted in Chomsky being listed as a target of Theodore Kaczynski – better known as the ‘Unabomber’ – during his 20-year mail bombing campaign.
09 Chomsky is an outspoken advocate against the death penalty in America, and was critical of the recent controversy surrounding the execution of Steven Michael Woods, Jr in Texas.
10 In the early 1970s, Columbia University used a chimpanzee to challenge Chomsky’s thesis that language is inherent only to humans, and – despite the experiment being inconclusive – named the young ape Nim Chimpsky in the theorist’s honour.
01 Professor Avram Noam Chomsky is widely regarded as the father of modern linguistics and is a major figure within this field, as well as the fields of philosophy, politics, science and psychology.
02 Despite his father being a noted professor and his mother a radical activist, Chomsky attributes his intellectual curiosity to his undereducated uncle who ran a newsstand frequented by arguing academics.
03 Chomsky wrote his first article – concerning the threat of the spread of fascism after the Spanish Civil War – when he was just ten years old.
04 He went on to author more than 100 books on linguistics, computer science and politics, and receive over 40 honorary degrees from universities worldwide, including Cambridge and Harvard.
05 Collectively, his works are some of the most cited sources of all time, and he is presently considered the most cited living author.
06 Heard of generative grammar – the set of rules that will predict how a sentence will be structured? Chomsky came up with that.
07 He was a leading opponent to the US involvement in the Vietnam War and has continued to publically criticise his country’s foreign policy.
08 Anti-war protests resulted in Chomsky being listed as a target of Theodore Kaczynski – better known as the ‘Unabomber’ – during his 20-year mail bombing campaign.
09 Chomsky is an outspoken advocate against the death penalty in America, and was critical of the recent controversy surrounding the execution of Steven Michael Woods, Jr in Texas.
10 In the early 1970s, Columbia University used a chimpanzee to challenge Chomsky’s thesis that language is inherent only to humans, and – despite the experiment being inconclusive – named the young ape Nim Chimpsky in the theorist’s honour.
Words by Stuart Holmes
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