Noam Chomsky

From Metapedia

Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, political leftist activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th century. He also helped spark the cognitive revolution in psychology through his review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, in which he challenged the behaviorist approach to the study of behavior and language dominant in the 1950s. His naturalistic approach to the study of language has affected the philosophy of language and mind. He is also credited with the establishment of the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power. Beginning with his critique of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Chomsky has become more widely known for his media criticism and political activism, and for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States and other governments.

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 1980–1992 time period, and was the eighth-most cited scholar in any time period

Chomsky is a liberal socialist and political dissident who is opposed to American foreign policy, imperialism, racism, and neoliberalism. He is an ardent defender of free speech. He has defended the free-speech rights of people with nationalist, and Rightists views claiming that he doesn't support the views themselves but supports the speakers right to voice those opinions. Chomsky believes that if a person only allows speech they like then they are not a supporter of free speech. Chomsky also refuses to sue people who slander him in the media.