The Science of Language
Interviews with James McGilvray

In this previously unpublished series of interviews, Chomsky discusses his iconoclastic and important ideas concerning language, human nature and politics.

Noam Chomsky (Author), James McGilvray (Compiled by)

9781107602403, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 March 2012

328 pages
22.7 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.52 kg

'By bringing the two sides of Chomsky's career together in ways that his specialist works have eschewed, the conversations recorded in (this book) remind us that the 'Chomsky problem' is no individual foible, but the deepest ideological contradiction of our age.' The Times Literary Supplement

Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential thinkers of our time, yet his views are often misunderstood. In this previously unpublished series of interviews, Chomsky discusses his iconoclastic and important ideas concerning language, human nature and politics. In dialogue with James McGilvray, Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, Chomsky takes up a wide variety of topics – the nature of language, the philosophies of language and mind, morality and universality, science and common sense, and the evolution of language. McGilvray's extensive commentary helps make this incisive set of interviews accessible to a variety of readers. The volume is essential reading for those involved in the study of language and mind, as well as anyone with an interest in Chomsky's ideas.

Introduction
Part I. The Science of Language and Mind: 1. Language, function, communication: language and the use of language
2. On a formal theory of language and its accommodation to biology. The distinctive nature of human concepts
3. Representation and computation
4. More on human concepts
5. Reflections on the study of language
6. Parameters, canalization, innateness, universal grammar
7. Development, master/control genes, etc.
8. Perfection and design (interview 20 January 2009)
9. Universal grammar and simplicity
10. On some intellectual ailments of scientists
11. The place of language in the mind
12. Chomsky's intellectual contributions
13. Simplicity and its role in Chomsky's work
14. Chomsky and Nelson Goodman
Part II. Human Nature and its Study: 15. Chomsky on human nature and human understanding
16. Human nature and evolution: thoughts on sociobiology and evolutionary psychology
17. Human nature again
18. Morality and universalization
19. Optimism and grounds for it
20. Language, agency, common sense, and science
21. Philosophers and their roles
22. Biophysical limitations on understanding
23. Epistemology and biological limits
24. Studies of mind and behavior and their limitations
25. Linguistics and politics.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Philosophy of mind [HPM], Philosophy of language [CFA]