Noam Chomsky is one of the leading intellectuals of our age whose contribution to our understanding of language is comparable to that of Einstein to the understanding of physical matter or Freud in the understanding of the psyche. He has demolished the behaviourist orthodoxy which was prevalent in the mid-twentieth century, reinstated the philosophical doctrine of innate ideas and paved the way for the cognitive revolution. What Galileo did for the physical sciences, Chomsky has done for the cognitive sciences. Yet most people know him for his political activism: he is the perennial scourge of the US government, a merciless exposer of lies in high places, the opponent of all concentrations of power and a crucial guardian of the moral conscience of the West.
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Citation: Smith, Neil. "Noam Chomsky". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=866, accessed 26 November 2024.]
