Born to Jewish parents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 7, 1928, Noam Chomskyis an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist and political activist. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as one of the fathers of modern linguistics.
In the 1950s, Chomsky began developing his theory of generative grammar, which has undergone numerous revisions and has had a profound influence on linguistics.
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.
Chicago Tribune, described Professor Chomsky as “the most cited living author” and ranked him just below Plato and Sigmund Freud among the most cited authors of all time.
While acknowledging that he is reviled in some quarters for his ferocious anti-Americanism, a recent New Yorker profile calls Chomsky “one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.”
Chomsky detests the state of Israel, a country he regards as playing the role of Little Satan to the American Great Satan and functioning strategically as an “offshore military and technology base for the United States.”
Chomsky has lectured at many universities, and is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards. He has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and US foreign policy.
His most recent books are A New Generation Draws the Line; New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind; Rogue States; 9-11;
Understanding Power; On Nature and Language; Pirates and Emperors, Old and New; Chomsky on Democracy and Education; Middle East Illusions; Hegemony or Survival; Imperial Ambitions; Failed States; Perilous Power; Interventions; Inside Lebanon; and What we Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World.
Chomsky has received many honorary degrees from well-known universities around the world.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In addition, he is a member of other professional and learned societies in the United States and abroad, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the 1999 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others.
He is twice winner of The Orwell Award, granted by The National Council of Teachers of English for “Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language” (in 1987 and 1989).
In February 2008, he received the President’s Medal from the Literary and Debating Society of the National University of Ireland, Galway.
In 2010, Chomsky received the Erich Fromm Prize in Stuttgart, Germany.
Chomsky was voted the leading living public intellectual in The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll conducted by the British magazine Prospect.
In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted seventh in the list of “Heroes of our time”.
Actor Viggo Mortensen with avant-garde guitarist Buckethead dedicated their 2006 album, called Pandemoniumfromamerica to Chomsky.
Notable quotes:
“The Hebrew press is much more open than the English language press, and there’s a very obvious reason: Hebrew is a secret language, you only read it if you’re inside the tribe.”
“I objected to the founding of Israel as a Jewish state. I don’t think a Jewish or Christian or Islamic state is a proper concept. I would object to the United States as a Christian state.”
“The US has created a military catastrophe in Iraq which I think is without historic parallel.”
"New York is a very insular society, but 11 September came as a wake-up call and many people, it seems, were led to the sudden realisation that they did not know enough about their country’s role in the world."
“Of course [suicide bombers are] terrorists and there’s been Palestinian terrorism all the way through. I have always opposed it….But it’s very small as compared with the US-backed Israeli terrorism.”
“In Europe freedom of speech and freedom of the press are barely protected, in fact barely understood.”
"The hopes and prospects for peace aren’t well aligned -- not even close. The task is to bring them nearer. Presumably that was the intent of the Nobel Peace Prize committee in recognising US President Barack Obama.
“What this wall is really doing is…helping turn Palestinian communities into dungeons, next to which the bantustans of South Africa look like symbols of freedom, sovereignty and self-determination.”
“In comparison to conditions imposed by US tyranny and violence, East Europe under Russian rule was practically a paradise.”
“Washington has become the torture and political murder capital of the world.”
“A suicide attack by military forces resisting an invasion can’t possibly be called an act of terrorism. Suppose the Iraqi army were surrounding New York and the Iraqi air force were bombing it unopposed. If an American carried out a suicide attack against the invading forces, would anyone call it “terrorism”?
“There are many terrorist states in the world, but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism, and on a scale that puts its rivals to shame.”
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