Noam Chomsky (born 1928) is a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian and activist and one of the world’s most influential intellectuals. He is an institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Read more: “Noam Chomsky: Meet the universal man”
In 1955, Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he still holds a professorship. Two years later, he published his first major book, , which laid the foundation for his highly influential work on linguistics and cognitive psychology, including the concept of “universal grammar”. Chomsky has since published more than 100 books.
In the late 1960s, Chomsky rose to prominence as an activist and dissident, particularly with regard to the Vietnam war. This photo shows him in 1967, marching on the Pentagon, Washington DC, with other intellectuals: the marchers include, from left, political activist Marcus Raskin, Chomsky, writer Norman Mailer, poet Robert Lowell, labour and anti-war activist Sidney Lens, peace protestor Dagmar Wilson, unknown, and paediatrician Benjamin Spock.
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In 1969 he published , the first of many books harshly criticising US foreign policy as neo-imperialist and terrorist. Chomsky has described his political views as libertarian socialist and/or anarcho-syndicalist; he regards all forms of power as corrupting and suspect.
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In 1988, he published (with Edward Herman), which argues that the US mass media are essentially propaganda organs for government and big business.
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The Arts and Humanities Citation Index that Chomsky was the world’s most highly cited living scholar. Only Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato and Freud had been cited more.
In 1993, he published , a major overhaul of his earlier work on linguistics that aims to reveal the inner workings of language as a simple set of general rules.
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In 2006, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, began with a recommendation of Chomsky’s 2003 book , a survey of US foreign policy since the second world war. He went on to describe the US president of the day, George W. Bush, as the devil.
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This year, Chomsky published , a series of in-depth dialogues with philosopher of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, on language, human nature and politics.
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