Noam Chomsky and the Bicycle Theory - The New York Times
At 87, Noam Chomsky, the founder of modern linguistics, remains a vital presence in American intellectual life. An emeritus professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where he still teaches, he has a dual identity, reflected in his
several dozen books. Many are on theoretical linguistics and the
philosophy of mind. Others are sharp, leftish polemics on American
politics. Dr. Chomsky is back in the news, thanks to a pair of
high-profile attacks. In “The Kingdom of Speech,” Tom Wolfe pairs Dr.
Chomsky (“Noam Charisma”) with Darwin as the malign Ur-theorists of
evolution. In “Decoding Chomsky: Science and Revolutionary Politics,”
the British anthropologist Chris Knight explores “the Chomsky problem” —
the paradox of a thinker who belongs to the “professional and
scientific elite” even as he espouses populist political ideas.
