Noam Chomsky's Reflections on Philosophy and Linguistics (Part 1) | Closer To Truth Chats

Closer To Truth has just launched a new website! We can't wait for you to see what we've been working on. New seasons (including the web debut of Season 21), interviews, topic guides, curated playlists, candid conversations, book excerpts, essays, and announcements. Visit today: www.CloserToTruth.com
Closer To Truth is proud to present this four-part miniseries with distinguished theoretical linguist, analytic philosopher, and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky. In Part 1, Chomsky discusses his intellectual history, highlights and reflections: from theoretical linguistics and syntactic structures to philosophical debates and political activism.
Watch Part 2: • Noam Chomsky on Theori...
Watch Part 3: • Noam Chomsky on Lingui...
Noam Chomsky is a distinguished theoretical linguist, analytic philosopher, cognitive scientist, political critic, social activist, and public intellectual. Called "the father of modern linguistics”, Chomsky helped bring about the cognitive revolution in the human sciences. At 94, he is one of the most cited living scholars. He is Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona.
Register for free at closertotruth.com for subscriber-only exclusives: bit.ly/2GXmFsP
Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and produced and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[@CloserToTruthTV]

Watch Part 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2WumX5poNCnma8 Part 3: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lX3di3qCdql2e9k

[@ronanpettit6900]

I think Chomsky was 94 at time of this interview not 93.

[@willcooper7651]

It’s refreshing to hear Prof. Chomsky interviewed on topics other than politics and history. What an extraordinary mind! His power of memory amazes me. Hearing how sharp he is in his nineties is inspiring! Breathtaking.

[@auditoryproductions1831]

Yeah I think this is the first interview I have heard with Chomsky that wasn't a Fossit of depression.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@auditoryproductions1831 do you mean "faucet"?

[@abeautifuldayful]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 😆

[@RyanonBasss]

One of the greatest minds of our time. Absolute pleasure to hear Noam talk and jest about his work. Great interview.

[@TheMahayanist]

Acharlatan and fraud

[@redacted428]

Nah. He should stick to jestering.

[@EclecticSceptic]

Chomsky's memory is outrageously good, always blows me away (and I don't mean 'for 94', I mean it's outrageously good in general).

[@amania9254]

He's a giant intellectual, so much respect! He's is on different level, a man with such capacity!

[@rosanagarcia5662]

capacity is always expanding/changing, proportional to the time's significant. Divise lifetime in parts, giving to each moment relative importance, is a faster way to lose the syntax meaning

[@mileskeller5244]

Professor Chompsky is an American treasure.

[@haru9369]

Love how he gave so many background stories of his personal life during this interview, always inspiring to know great minds also have normal daily lives like us. looking forward to the part 2

[@ChooseCompassion]

I love seeing Noam smile ❤

[@mags102755]

I heard Professor Chomsky speak in Cambridge Massachusetts about 20 years ago. He's an inspiring human being.

[@elizabethblakley2876]

thanks so much for having Noam on! you are so knowledgeable regarding Noam"s work. Your questions were so thoughtful. Wonderful conversation please have him on again!

[@pappapiccolino9572]

Noam is 93, and still so lucid and coherent. Just amazing. His passing, when it does happen, will leave a massive, gaping hole. I can't see anyone on the horizon who will come close to filling his shoes. A wonderful man is many ways. We love you Noam.

[@david50665]

not just lucid and coherent but still brilliant and razor sharp

[@pappapiccolino9572]

@@david50665 Yep, very true.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

what about your passing? It could happen before Noam. Not very nice to ponder the demise of others.

[@david50665]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 what about your passing?

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@david50665 I cried and meditated for Noam Chomsky to live a long life over 20 years ago. Here's the email he sent me. Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 To: Drew W Hempel (by way of Noam Chomsky Subject: Re: Minnesota Dear Drew Hempel, God save us from our friends -- not for the first time. I'm a little surprised that Brokaw would credit a source like that. Surely he wouldn't in the case of anyone who falls within approved doctrinal bounds. You're quite right about activists not being willing to read. I get a good measure of it when publishers send sales records or in the signing frenzies after I give talks. In both cases it's overwhelmingly the small pamphlets with interviews, etc.; easy reads, and short. But it's not just activists. Same with academic scholars. It's very rare for them to go beyond the limits of the guild, a practice far more pronounced in the social sciences, history, etc., than in the sciences, something I've observed from a lot of first-hand experience in the last 1/2-century. It's too bad about Guerin-Rocker, and in fact all of the rich literature on anarchism. Contemporary anarchists -- at least those who use the name -- seem to divide, mostly, between people who don't want to read and those who are immersed in often arcane scholarship. There are exceptions, of course, but the tendencies are noticeable. It was quite different in the days when workers education was a normal part of everyday life for great numbers of people, and labor-based media were common fare. No plans for reissue of At War with Asia or For Reasons of State, much to my regret. In fact, they were scarcely looked at in the first place. Wrong story. Even left academics don't want to hear such things, and it went -- and goes -- beyond the interests of most activists. How far the anti-war movement was from understanding anything that was going on was revealed pretty dramatically by the reception of McNamara's awful memoirs -- actually welcomed by leading figures as a vindication of their stand. Few could comprehend what an incredible display of apologetics it was. Wrote a few things about it, which I noticed could not be understood even by left academics, for the most part. The Party Line is much more influential than many think. Thanks for sending along the excerpt from what you've been writing. Interesting, and well done I think -- but then, I would. I've read some of what Zerzan has written, under various names. Occasionally, out of curiosity, I've written brief letters asking if he could supply some of the sources for particular quotes, which I know he has invented (though I didn't say so). I'm constantly promised that they'll be coming. They won't, of course. This is just a silly game, in my opinion, defaming the good name of anarchism -- not for the first time; there's a rich history of that. Noam

[@stevenfleming3311]

All hail overload Noam! Lovely to have this resource thank you

[@learnarabicwithmaria]

نحن نحترم تشومسكي هنا في العالم العربي كثيرا.We respect Chomsky here in the Arab world a lot.

[@danishakhtar3154]

Sometimes, I wish he would have accepted Islam. But again people would have been more focused on his religion rather than what he has to say.

[@notanemoprog]

Great! Can't wait for Part 2!

[@Jaberwoccky]

Thank you for this lovely Christmas present 🎁 💕

[@clemsonalum98]

I really like listening to Chomsky on both Linguistics AND Politics/World Affairs (even though I disagree with him on many things) for several reasons. 1. Even when I disagree, he makes coherent arguments that are very well read unlike most of the modern left that relies on emotion, whims, and personal attacks and 2. He is a throwback to what the left WAS when had a functioning two party system. I view him as a classical leftist with a touch of libertarianism, very different from today's neo marxist / WOKE left that would want to ban him from many venues.

[@sethoflagos2880]

I've always respected Chomsky from a distance without any real comprehension why other than that he seemed to ooze a gentle humanity, but worked in areas that weren't central to my main interests. However, his almost throwaway comment at the end that all people should have an inalienable right to realise their full intellectual potential struck a chord and put real teeth into the clear consistency between his philosophical, ethical and political convictions. Thank you for that, I've subscribed and look forward very much to the rest of your series with him.

[@andygoldensixties4201]

Thank you very very much, this episode is of exceptional interest

[@juliancochran]

Thank you for giving this wonderful interview which was so well conducted.

[@Ryan-on5on]

At long last! A recent in-depth interview with Prof. Chomsky that doesn't explicitly concern geopolitics, but rather the field-forming contributions he made to modern linguistics over an eminent career spanning seven decades. I could listen to this wise sage talk about practically anything this side of the universe, but to hear someone who played so indelible a role in the forming of a whole new field of study discuss their career (and with such cogency and detail) makes me all the more grateful for Dr. Kuhn's program.

[@enricogaleazzi7454]

Long life Mr. Chomsky!

[@christophercousins184]

Love hearing about his intellectual journey, thanks.

[@stephenzhao5809]

Thanks, Merry Christmas!

[@thealgorerhythm9379]

Fantastic!

[@jessycadenas8435]

Nice to see tío Chomsky. Thanks for interviewing him.

[@robloch5]

Such a great man with a humble vision...

[@martinzarzarmusic5338]

Chomsky laying down the law as badass as Gandalf… sharp as ever! So glad to see he is still healthy!

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

his wife made him cut his hair now.

[@martinzarzarmusic5338]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 you know what they say… behind every great man there is a wife deciding when he should cut his hair. 😂

[@eliebouroufail7107]

liked before watching !

[@tlasbio]

Finally!

[@markberman6708]

This is just fabulous work and exposure to some of the greatest thoughts and minds around, so inspiring and incredibly enjoyable. Could all verbal and non-verbal forms of communication have a rhythm and a kind of communicative internal mechanistic frequency? One that might pass information without great linguistic understanding of the two languages being spoken to each other. Do we have biological "root codes" across all human communication? Stardust and energy with consciousness and still young on a planetary timeline, are we really that divergent. Chomsky's ideas on linguistics and human communication had great influence on my young life as a partially non-verbal youngster that grew up with quite the stuttering problem. One of his comments on the "verbal wars" made me think of how do we direct our native competitive nature towards common goals. Should one not read all the works of Camus, Descartes (said as Des Car'T' ess, in my young language at the time) and Hubert? Politics for Closer to the Truth.... saying "We don't do politics, but view Freedom of Speech as a must have" -paraphrase here because not note taking--- was a perfect answer. Don Quixote seems to be another must read... is seeing dragons and jousting windmills a necessity for intellectual growth and understanding human psychology... mass psychology, the Beer (Meade) and bread problem. The withhold the grain from the plebian class until it benefits a thing issue the Roman's used so well?

[@jayaramj8497]

Finally the OG arrives!!!

[@bobtarmac1828]

Wow, wow, wow!!! What a treat. Thank you CTT!! Looking forward to the rest of Noam’s chats with you.

[@joseavendano2140]

One of the greatest philosophers of our times

[@redacted428]

Not really

[@edwardjones2202]

@@redacted428 Pretty much. And regarded as such by his philosophical peers, even those who disagreed with him: Putnam, Quine, Dennett

[@redacted428]

@@edwardjones2202 nice cherry-picked list there, Jones

[@TheMahayanist]

A charlatan.

[@TheMahayanist]

@@edwardjones2202 Smart people can say stupid things. Don't put Quine and Putnam with the likes of Dennett and Chomsky, it's offensive.

[@missh1774]

My God ... Noam was filling the air with these forward thinking p/articles before I was even born. Talk about throwing things into the universe and seeing what it yields. As a new entrance child at school, I remember we had to watch 3 types of projector films at least one to two times a day for what seem like 2 years. It was designed for young children, abit silly or comedic, with themes of innovating, social ques and another weird one. Somehow no one else remembers doing that. I can only imagine how useful that type of data and observations would be today. Note to self... thoughts in written form are probably best kept on paper 🤦🏽‍♀️.

[@redacted428]

"P/articles" 😂😂😂

[@Kenji17171]

Very cool!

[@nyworker]

But he may believe in the belief in God.

[@edwardsitepu5469]

Sangat memberkati dengan wawancara ini. Beliau sedemikian jernih memahami persoalan dan akurat

[@gracerodgers8952]

Father Time!!! Awesome! Where and when can you find the Baby New Year? 😁No, really, very nice interview.Thank you.

[@Xavyer13]

Lovely

[@bon9-5]

His book syntactic Structures was my struggle and pleasure during my undergraduate school.

[@danieljin8390]

so happy to see that my hero is still doing well

[@AA-qs4ju]

Nice

[@sebolddaniel]

Noam was eager and easy to please the police who were ordered to stop drinking by midnight.

[@joachimweber5014]

"Closer to truth" meets "Speak truth to power". Great episode. Looking forward to the upcoming ones.

[@BuffaloBlack]

Long live Chomsky

[@janjalanimartinez8523]

Imagine a father of an academic field (modern linguistics) is still alive today. You don't experience that often.

[@dsa513]

The Copernican revolution of our time. A major shift in how we see the world.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

look up "quantum biology"

[@psicologiajoseh]

I would love to see Chomsky's reaction to the Relational Frame Theory stance. RFT researchers believe they are vindicating Skinner after he "lost" the debate with Chomsky about language being learn or innate. Skinner proposed that language is learned. When refuted by Chomsky, this would give rise to the current hegemony of the cognitive sciences. Now, RFT researchers say they have the evidence to show that Skinner was right after all. Language is learned not through associations, as Skinner would say, but through "relations". And according to them, it is that ability to make relations that makes us human. If Chomsky would respond and continue the debate, it would be very valuable for the history of science in general and very interesting!

[@chahuncoller]

I suggest you a video. Watch this short video for results on intelligence and the self that even philosophy and psychology professors haven't achieved yet. Video name: WHAT IS TABULA RASA? WHAT IS IQ INTELLIGENCE? WHAT IS THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THEM?

[@rizwanrafeek3811]

Gee what a great guy Noam Chomsky is not scared to speak the truth, may God give him a long life, ameen.

[@jeffamos9854]

Don’t think he believes in god

[@Vinny141]

wow noam chomsky thanks for making this available. When was this recorded?

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

Noam Chomsky does about 3 hours of interviews or talks a day - most of them are on youtube.

[@Vinny141]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 in what way is that relevant to my question?

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@Vinny141 a parachute is like the mind, it doesn't work when it's closed.

[@advocatehafiznasirmahmood5980]

Good effort sir 👍

[@dionysianapollomarx]

Chomsky's comments on Quine on "internal principles" being an undiscussed part of his work in connection to Quine is an interesting one. Chomsky's reference to Quine's mention of "internal principles" in an NYU symposium in 1969 is interesting. Will have to read his Reflections on Language. Lots to read here.

[@livondiramerian6999]

The human language is the most simple & effective.

[@user-tl6iu3ee3f]

the reflection started with ideas to thoughting in philosophy and speech philosophy, with sentences complex words to make our mind reflected or the reflection of our mind thought and language and reflection we have the reflection happens with mind and the mind translation with language.

[@sabyasachisenapati3619]

I have been chasing a ghost all this while. 🖤🖤🖤

[@themanwhosoldtheworld5350]

Robert! Please do some panel discussions like you used to back in the early 2000s. It would be great to contrast the views of the same (though older) eminent philosophers and physicists on those big topics like consciousness, the brain/mind, the universe, free will, quantum physics, cosmology etc! See whether they've changed their views on anything and whether they think progress has been made... that is, have they gotten any "closer to truth" on those big questions!

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

better hurry up because if ecology was included in that range of "big topics" then you would learn we have about five years before biological annihilation kicks in. Hope you get that request fulfilled. Sit back and wait and who knows?

[@themanwhosoldtheworld5350]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 As I recall, it was, but it was somewhat overshadowed by topics like the brain, mind, quantum mechanics, physics, etc... But I'm not sure we need to discuss ecology and the risk of annihilation because I'm pretty sure we are closer to truth on that question than others.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@themanwhosoldtheworld5350 You're "pretty sure"? That's hilarious!!!! Just how academic is the phrase "pretty sure" - I hope you can be very happy resting the near term human extinction on that phrase.

[@themanwhosoldtheworld5350]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 I'm pretty sure humans will go extinct and sooner than most think. I'm not so sure though whether it's a bad thing.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@themanwhosoldtheworld5350 if you use googlescholar to search the phrase "biological annihilation" you learn that modern Westernized society in the last 40 years has killed off 70% of wildlife and the mass extinction of species will also be soon. At 104 F. photosynthesis shuts down and soon growing food at scale will be impossible on earth. Of course according to "Science Fridays" on national petroleum radio - we can all live in outerspace with NASA "synthetic ecology." Who needs oxygen, clean air, fresh water and fertile soil? Humans were hunter-gatherers for 90% of our existence. Farming seemed like a "productive invention" but it's actually just been an acceleration of biological annihilation since then. There's a huge 500 gigaton methane reservoir pressurized in the ocean's largest shallow shelf - the East Siberian Arctic Shelf - and that methane is already releasing - it will accelerate as the arctic ice disappears in the next five years. That methane will then heat earth up more than current global warming - and the loss of the arctic ice (fiirst time in 3 million years) will also heat up Earth more than current global warming. It's gonna get real bad real fast. Even Chomsky understates how bad things are going to get. Nuclear power plants will be melting down, etc. Chomsky is correct to say modern society is insane and lemmings going off the cliff and the two major risks are nuclear power/weapons and abrupt global warming. The Aerosol Masking Effect is now known to be twice as bad as previously thought. That means a 40% decrease in sulfur pollution from trying to switch off coal (for co2 emissions) will also heat up Earth another 1 degree Celsius global average! Civilization is a "heat engine" to quote Tim Garrett - or as Roger Penrose explains our attempt to decrease the entropy of matter has increased the entropy of gravity on Earth. thanks

[@allauddin732]

My hero

[@revolutie89omorareasecurit77]

Law of wars!

[@Arunava_Gupta]

Funny thought came to me while watching this video. The electrical signals in Robert's brain are flowing through a certain route in the neuronal "internet," say from A to B to C (simplistically). In Chomsky's case, it's (say) A, C, B. There's nothing else going on, right, as the brain is all neuronal; no other phenomenon is occurring? So, then, it must be, purely, the *route* taken by these (neuronally generated) electrical signals that makes one brain Chomsky and the other Robert,. right? Their thoughts and views on different matters, their respective ideologies all must be arising from this difference only. Am I correct? Materialists, please answer.

[@arnabkumarparia383]

Om

[@olgaycelik2631]

Does anybody know other modern linguistics expect Chomsky and Crystal?

[@megakeenbeen]

Lots. Depends on what specific area of linguistics you are interested in. Linguistics is not a dead field, it's alive and well (though the Chomskyan perspective of linguistics has adherents in short supply)

[@thedude9620]

🤜🏾♥️🤛🏻

[@markfischer3626]

Despite the fact that my political views are 180 degrees polar opposite to Professor Chomsky's this non political discussion gave me a lot to think about. It's going to take time. I might have to listen to it several times. I don't want to think about it but I may not have a choice.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

I doubt you've actually read any of Noam Chomsky's political books.

[@RootinrPootine]

180 degrees from his political views is what’s called fascism.

[@markfischer3626]

@RootinrPootine He calls it fascism. One of his methods of lying as a linguist is to redefine words, especially pejorative words and use them to defame those he disagrees with. For example, in a BBC interview many years ago he said early in the interview that the United States is a rogue nation. Later he said it was a rogue nation because it acted in its own self interest. News flash, so does every other country. So I don't take what Chomsky says seriously because among other things he is a liar. Fascism has a very clear definition and I am definitely not a fascist. Chomsky has many other methods of lying but you don't have to be an English professor to see through them.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@markfischer3626 You're gonna have to provide actual quotes if you want to accuse someone. Otherwise it's a false accusation.

[@jamesmacgillivray9607]

Brought out a big gun

[@LevanGudadze]

It's sad that my channel is so small and unimportant that I don't have a chance to invite Noam Chomsky' for an interview.

[@iraklinatroshvili7915]

Perhaps someday you will have that opportunity.

[@zombiesingularity]

Email him, he replies to almost everyone it seems like

[@gracerodgers8952]

Don't feel bad. Growth happens at different rates for different people.

[@nyworker]

He's very generous with his time

[@Llllltryytcc]

He does at least 1-2 interviews a week that get posted on KZbin and get only a few thousands views shoot him an email

[@revolutie89omorareasecurit77]

N am vazut onoare deloc!

[@BulentBasaran]

"I have been making people angry all my life." Just like Socrates and many other lovers of wisdom... "We didn't believe any of it." Of course, Skinner and his followers were mad.

[@prescottlange]

Noam Chomsky taught me everything I know about exterior illumination.

[@esorse]

A model of space represented by numbers a specifiable difference apart for written language and no rational form, x/y, where x is a whole number 0, 1, 2, ... and y a natural number 1, 2, 3, .. for spoken language, respectively like 68/25 = 2.72 Euler's irrational number approximated to two decimal places with no rational form and possibly infinite numbers following the decimal point, would be consistent with Chomsky's claim.

[@megakeenbeen]

What does that mean? Just curious

[@sledzeppelin]

Noam is 173 years old and still able to use his training as a linguist to find ways to reflexively blame America for every negative thing in the universe. A real inspiration.

[@redacted428]

173? 😅😅😅 well his dementia certainly seems to suggest he has reached such an age 😂

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

did you actually type that with one finger? Impressive typing! Now you can start working on your thinking.

[@waindayoungthain2147]

🙏🏻please help me why did the power go off language, since any language made to understanding please , and why did the understanding cause the problem of democracy conflict😲, please. It’s seems good 👍🏻 but it’s not? It’s kind but it’s opposite, it’s seems like be friends but it’s making me feel like politics isn’t perfect for the goodness leading ?

[@Ayala252]

I think Chomsky's self-diagnosis re the link between his day job and his politics is wrong, and that's because he's modest and insists on keeping his criticisms impersonal. But for whatever it's worth, I think the connection.is seamless: He asks what does being human entail, what does having language commit us to.. It was Frege, his genious predecessor, who formed an incomorehensible paradox by not accepting the consequences of his philosophy (Russell's aside). Chomsky's philosophy and politics - the environmental too - are the natural results of his linguistics (and perhaps also enabled it). A true and great humanist. I wish he could multiply like a uni-cellular organism. But Evolution sucks.

[@Kostly]

You wanna know the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth. lol

[@Peaceprojector]

If all matter dies then what will "making" do now? 😐

[@NullStaticVoid]

Lots of people on the left as well as some so called progressive love to bash Chomsky. As if he is some kind of kindergarten level thinker, that you outgrow as you learn how the real world works. I think this derives from his ubiquity in the 90s. You could not go into a dorm room or college coop without seeing Chomsky books next to Beastie Boy CDs and hacky sacks. But if you explore his writings and lectures, he has more in common with the realist school of international relations as embodied by John Mearshimer, than he does with Che Guevera T shirt wearing ideologues. He is just as likely to rebuke doctrinaire marxists as he is to call out the wealth inequality in western liberal democracies. Of course the difference between Mearshimer and Chomsky is that Chomsky has a moral core which seeks what should be. Mearshimer is a little more skewed toward objectivity at the cost of moral ethics. Hence the former was for the Iraq war, the later decried it.

[@esorse]

In an uncertain world without an omnipotent being, evaluating the marginal utility - satisfaction - of an experienced charity employee and broke, unemployed person from a USD1b donation, for comparison, is not technically possible.

[@sebolddaniel]

When watch Noam, I can just feel my language acquisition circuits hardening with age.

[@waindayoungthain2147]

🙏🏻what are the ambassadors language please that sounds like 👍🏻 honey 🍯 sweet dreams or it’s poison in lies and exposing ways of the traditional language of no laws please 🙏🏻. Wasn’t that no more for the international law forces of law, please 🙏🏻?

[@kallianpublico7517]

Universal grammar as starting as the search for general principles governing all languages and advancing to genetic origins of linguistic ability. Hmmmm. Functionalism to structuralism? Algebra back to geometry? Unlike geometric forms, shapes, genes do have conscious corroboration: empirical foundation, as does biology. Unfortunately I am hard pressed to understand how one can make the leap from a voice box to a thought. From a sound creating device to a cognition of meaning. Much less a gene for a voice box to a meaning. This leads me to speculate that thought cannot occur without distinctive genetic apparatus. To put it another way, to speculate that animals, plants, viruses, fungi, cannot think. On the other hand it frees me to conjecture if thought itself is not necessarily tied to sound generating apparatus: language; but may have a less restrictive origin. If there are "other" kinds of thoughts than humans can think with their distinct voice box. That thought may transcend physical limitations or that physical limitation always imply limited thought. Just as the algebraic equation of a circle makes use of 2nd degree exponential variables whereas the algebraic equation of a line does not, CAN NOT; so human thought is exclusive to humans whereas plant thought is exclusive to plants? Is the degree of difference untranslatable, is there no way to "square the circle"? Is there a quantum barrier in language as well?

[@philiptreuer9088]

I can't wait for you to ask him why there is something rather than nothing.

[@Llllltryytcc]

Lol

[@revolutie89omorareasecurit77]

Dumnezeu ıa celula dumnezeırıı de la totı Scrıe asta undeva...

[@Claudio-hc6tg]

Everytime Chomsky speaks I try to find out any fallacy in his logic but I've never found one. That's disappointing and inspiring at the same time.

[@Llllltryytcc]

You’re disappointed cause you can’t play gotcha with noam chomsky ty this made my day lol

[@dparamful]

Oh come on. Panini (from 2000 years ago) is the father of linguistics. He figured out everything this dude did, and much more, 2 millenia before him.

[@sbnwnc]

No

[@Peaceprojector]

Eternal Dosen't make sense otherwise and universe appears cyclical and boring, Everytime more of less the same universe. But making it always has potential.

[@sandro9uerra]

Dr. Chomsky wanted to put me in a concentration camp for not taking the injections, I don't find him very inspirational. But whats truly disturbing, is that so many people think he's such a nice old man and putting people in concentration camps isn't such a bad idea.

[@phanomtaxskibididoodoo]

Off to the camps disease incubator.

[@Danielpi]

This interview makes me wish he would talk more about language, mind, and philosophy-topics where he has something useful to contribute-rather than the political drivel he hocks to gullible undergrads.

[@Peaceprojector]

Perhaps the consciousness moves with the body, body being the entire matter. So when soil loses all fertility, petrol is gone and many other resources depletion over billions of years on earth, then where will doing and making go? 🥰🤣 New matter anyone? But from WHAAAAT? 🥶

[@drbuckley1]

I understand your reluctance to discuss politics, but maybe some day you'll talk to a Political Scientist.

[@Llllltryytcc]

Maybe he’s reluctant because his Chinese overlords are watching his every move. Haha, only kidding.

[@derekclark4663]

Garbage Truck Juice!

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

dirty diapers! what's your point.

[@allablr5765]

Why? Noam is one of the reasons we are in that horrible mess now.

[@redacted428]

👍 #FACTS

[@simonwise38]

How?

[@Llllltryytcc]

@@simonwise38don’t expect a rational answer

[@allablr5765]

@@Llllltryytcc You clearly don't know because you didn't read your idol's work. He is exceptionally smart, which makes his influence on people more evil, and since he likes socialism/communism so much as defending indefensible, and yet never left much hated US, you can love him instead of looking at " What is he really done?". I know, you just a simple person.

[@Llllltryytcc]

You can’t even write without using run on sentences.

[@S6WLUKAS]

Tyrant

[@NothingMaster]

Yes, yes, and yes as for his academic credentials, but let’s not forget: Also an incorrigible communist / socialist defending all kinds of corrupt dictators and repressive regimes around the world.

[@bladdnun3016]

He never defends dictators, he just tends to emphasize that western regimes aren't much better.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

Noam is not a communist. Hilarious.

[@bhante1345]

Sorry but once he said the unvaccinated can hungry on the streets, this man shown himself to be nothing more than a spiteful Maoist. Zero respect for anything he has to say now despite his previous body of work.

[@davidantonacci9525]

Ya well there are lots of idiots in the world. You're not the only one.

[@lorezampadeferro8641]

💯

[@dsa513]

Jajaja what do vaccines have to do with theories of language? You're doing yourself no favors.

[@saran5263]

He's old. He probably was afraid for his own life.

[@masomemaleki389]

@@saran5263 who scared him to say that?

[@opiaetus1061]

Theoretical linguistics is the search for truth being meaningless. Theoretical physics is the search for truth being literally meaningless. Literal meaningless physics, means we live on world lines. We walk around, do daily tasks, meaninglessly, just like in linguistics, but on a world line determined by the cosmos. I make this point, because theoretical linguistics has no anchor, but theoretical physics does. For we have the sun in the sky. For linguistics, the sun in the sky determines nothing, it is like a reading lamp, it just means nothing. For physics, it is the determination of the day. For like the reading lamp being there indicating the possibility of reading, is the sun in the sky, indicating the life going on on the Earth beneath it. There is no life- world lines- to theoretical linguistics, in that sense of theoretical physics, which is why you have two independent disciplines, which are both theoretical, which do not complete each other, but are both complete. I make this point to illuminate the gods, because Chomsky is a great mind, in a great world, too. The great mind, without the great world, is a campus, that has no star [*literally “a star in the sky], just a man on display [*literally “a lonely man”]. For those who don’t know what a world line is, a single world line, just one, is me sitting in my chair watching this video. My world line, is everything in the world, just as yours is, how can you have one if you’re in my world? The answer is physics, which more or less equals the return of the book to the shelf in the library of the gods [*literally “a man among friends”]. The voyage home, as I understand it, is the meaning of physics, The Odyssey is what the universe is. How to understand this, The universe receives Chomsky, as I stop watching KZbin, and go out for the day, because it is very early in the morning, and I’m planning to go for a walk.

[@brucemacmillan9581]

He should stick to linguistics. Whatever that is. His opinions on politics are at least somewhat suspect.

[@tabbycat8760]

he is masonic servant

[@masomemaleki389]

@@tabbycat8760 what is that?

[@tabbycat8760]

@@masomemaleki389 freemason, bad people

[@masomemaleki389]

@@tabbycat8760 how do you know he is freemason?

[@tabbycat8760]

@@masomemaleki389 not doing your research for you

[@HENRYIII003]

So I've been looking at triplets and I have something a little crazy to say about them. "Only a language puts a third thing in the middle." That's my latest idea, greatest or lame-est, inspired by the problem of evil and the unusual triplet "GOD EVIL CLOWN." I've written hundreds of high quality triplets and I've considered the permutations I would assign and so I've ranked the permutations, leading me to say that silly thing above and return to the problem of evil and number constructions, linearizations. complex utility calculator. Watch: LAST THIRD MIDDLE WORD PAIR TRIPLET Oh there's too much to say here, and I'm probably failing to mention important things. I've probably thought of everything but I still can't get the group theory without speaking twisdimensions. Who said "the water was not bookshelf?" Me, my keyboard, the comedian's "bookshelf," or the universe, or you? I sound like a chatternaught, a bucketeer. I might drive you insane. Calm down please, the computer is simulating baby Jesus. Almost like... a toddler dropping an ice cream cone... I dream of a keyboard that speaks to me...

[@tabbycat8760]

monolingual linguist 😂 or better masonic devil wishing death upon the unvaxxed