Noam Chomsky is one of the leading intellectual figures of modern times.He has had a major influence on linguistics,psychology and philosophy,and a significant effect on a range of other disciplines from anthropology to mathematics,education to literary criticism.

In this rigorous yet accessible account of Chomsky's work and influence,Neil Smith analyses Chomsky's key contributions to the study of language and the study of mind.He gives a detailed and partly historical exposition of Chomsky's linguistic theorizing,and examines the ideas for which he is best known.Smith discusses the psychological and philosophical implications of Chomsky's work,and argues that he has fundamentally changed the way we think of ourselves,gaining a position in the history of ideas on a par with that of Darwin of Descartes.Finally,he examines Chomsky's political ideas and how these fit intellectually with his scholarly work.Smith argues that,despite Chomsky's own disavowal of any very close connection,there are fundamental ideas of rationality,creativity and modularity that draw together the disparate strands of his vast output.Throughout,Smith explores the coutroversy surrounding Chomsky's work,and explains why he has been both adulated and vilified.

This much needed book will be welcomedby a wide range of readers:students and researchers in linguistics,philosophy,psychology,cognitive science and politics,and anyone with an interest in the impact of Chomsky's work.

Preface to the second edition

Acknowledgments for the first edition

Introduction

Chomsky's achievement

On heroes and influences

1 The mirror Of the mind

 Linguistics as a science

The nature of idealization

Common sense

 Modularity

Double dissociation

Modules and quasi-modules

Intelligence and "learning"

 Competence and performance

Competence and grammar

Rules

I-language and E-language

 Performance, parsing, and pragmatics

Parsing considerations

Pragmatic considerations

Competence and performance versus I-language and E-language

 Evolution and innateness

Language acquisition

Poverty of the stimulus

Word meaning

Universals

 Natural language and the language of thought

 Summary

2 The linguistic foundation

 Introduction

 Knowledge of language

The lexicon

Knowledge of structure

Knowledge of structural relations

 Levels of representation

Constituents and rules

Deep structure

 Description versus explanation

From rules of principles

The elimination of PS rules

X-bar theory

 Government and Binding theory

Binding theory

Locality

Theta theory

Case theory and government

 Empty categories

 The status of transformations

 Principles and parameters

Lexical and functional categories

 Minimalism

Economy

The elements of Minimalism

Perfect syntax

 A historical progression

 Evolution

3 Psychological reality

 Causality and observability

Psychological reality and the nature of evidence

Intuitions

 Language processing

The derivational theory of complexity

Grammars and parsers

Parsing problems

Economy

 Language acquisition (Plato's problem)

Teaching versus learning

Learning versus growing

Parameter setting

The critical period hypothesis

Maturation

 Language pathology

Agenesis of the corpus callosum

The polyglot savant

Specific language impairment (SLI)

 Connectionism: the behaviorists strike back

4 Philosophical realism: commitments and controversies

 Commitments

Realism

I-language revisited

Representation and computation

Naturalism

Mentalism

Tacit knowledge

The mind-body problem

 Controversies

Language and the world

Language and the community

Language and the individual

Problems of semantics

Innateness

Unification and reduction

 Conclusions

5 Language and freedom

 Explanation and dissent: the common threads

Relentless dissent

Common sense and theory

 Rationality, modularity, and creativity

Rationality

Modularity

Malleability and plasticity

Creativity

 The anarchist background

The Encyclopedistes

 The critique of (American) foreign policy

Vietnam

East Timor

 9-11: terrorism and the "war on terror"

 The critique of domestic policy

Pig fanning in Haiti

Drug trafficking

 The critique of media control

Murder

Third world elections

The treason of the intellectuals

 The technique of dissection

The exposure of warped perspective

The exposure of suppressed precursor events

The exposure of debased language

 Moral absolutes and options for the future

The Faurisson affair

Islamic fundamentalism

Authority

 The positive program

 Conclusion

 Envoi

Notes

Bibliography

Index