Avram Noam Chomsky
Father of modern linguistics
Information
Avram Noam Chomsky born December 7, 1928, is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator and activist. Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently Professor Emeritus, and has authored over 100 books. He has been described as a prominent cultural figure, and was voted the "world's top public intellectual" in a 2005 poll.
Born to a middle-class Ashkenazi Jewish family in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from relatives in New York City. He later undertook studies in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained his BA, MA, and PhD.
http://tweedsmag.org/noam-chomsky-%E2%80%A2-think-it-through/
http://lawanddisorder.org/2010/12/law-and-disorder-december-6-2010/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/25/noam-chomsky-at-learning-without-frontiers
About Chomsky
More Information
The basis to Chomsky's linguistic theory is that the principles underlying the structure of language are biologically determined in the human mind and hence transmitted genetically.He therefore argues that all humans share the same underlying linguistic structure. In this he opposes the radical behaviourist psychology of B.F. Skinner, instead he argues that human language is unlike modes of communication used by any other animal species.
Achievements
Chomsky has received many honorary degrees from universities around the world, including from the following:
- University of London
- University of Chicago
- Loyola University Chicago
- Swarthmore College
- University of Delhi
- Bard College
- University of Massachusetts Amherst
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of St. Andrews
- Georgetown University
- Amherst College
- University of Cambridge
- University of Colorado
- University of Buenos Aires
- McGill University
- Rovira i Virgili University
- Columbia University
- Villanova University
- University of Connecticut
- University of Maine
- Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
- University of Western Ontario
- University of Toronto
- Harvard University
- University of Chile
- University of Bologna
- University of La Frontera
- University of Calcutta
- National University of Colombia
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Santo Domingo Institute of Technology
- Uppsala University
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
- University of Cyprus
- Central Connecticut State University
- National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
- Peking University[207]
- National Tsing Hua University
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.