Book 32 - "Introducing Chomsky""

[jazzy_dave]

"Introducing Chomsky" by John Maher & Judy Groves (Ikon)




The book is divided into two parts: the political Chomsky which to me is the more interesting aspect and the less visible linguistic Chomsky, which comes first.

Thanks to the first linguistic half, I now have a thorough underlying understanding of Chomsky's work on generative and transformative grammar, as well as his intriguing (for a philosophy student interested in cognitive science) work on psycholinguistics and the philosophy of mind, as well as his disputes with the behaviourist B.F. Skinner and the Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget. If you want an introduction to this Chomsky, I recommend this book highly.

However, the second political half, although it covers the bare basics, does not do much in terms of outline; this is perhaps because the author is just a linguistics professor, and not also well-versed in political radicalism and activism. If you want to have a better introduction to this side of Chomsky, I would recommend his own book For Reasons of State, or his own lecture Government In The Future which you can find online both in the original audio and text form.

As a complete unit, I would still say buy it, but keep reading afterwards; it only goes so far.