Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky (pronounced /noʊm ˈtʃɑmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist,philosopher,^[2][3][4] cognitive scientist, political activist,author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritusand professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[5] Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modernlinguistics.^[6][7] Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident, an anarchist,^[8] and alibertarian socialist intellectual.

In the 1950s, Chomsky began developing his theory ofgenerative grammar, which has undergone numerous revisions and has had a profound influence on linguistics. He also established the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification offormal languages in terms of their generative power. In 1959, Chomsky published a widely influential review of B. F. Skinner's theoretical book Verbal Behavior, which was the first attempt by a Radical Behaviorist to provide a functional,operant analysis of language. Chomsky used this review to broadly and aggressively challenge the behavioristapproaches to studies of behavior dominant at the time and contributed to the cognitive revolution in psychology. His naturalistic^[9] approach to the study of language has affected the philosophy of language and mind.^[10] Randy Harris, author of The Linguistics Wars, has described him as: "a hero of Homeric proportions, belonging solidly in the pantheon of our country's finest minds, with all the powers and qualities thereof. First, foremost, and initially he is staggeringly smart. The speed, scope, and synthetic abilities of his intellect are legendary. He is, too, a born leader, able to marshal support, fierce and uncompromising support, for positions he develops or adopts. Often, it seems, he shapes linguistics by sheer force of will."^[11]

Beginning with his opposition to the Vietnam War, Chomsky established himself as a prominent critic of US foreign and domestic policy. He is a self-declared adherent of libertarian socialism which he regards as "the proper and natural extension of classical liberalism into the era of advanced industrial society."^[12]

According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar during the 1980–92 period, and was the eighth most-cited source.^[13][14][15] He is also considered a prominent cultural figure.^[16] At the same time, his status as a leading critic of US foreign policy has made him controversial.