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ABUSES OF EMPIRICISM
Noam Chomsky’s contribution to the
debate
Barbara Wainwright
She sells sea shells
Quine: From a Logical Point of View
(1953)
“A linguistic theory will give a
general explanation for what
COULD be in a language on
the basis of what IS plus
simplicity of the laws
whereby we describe and
extrapolate what is.”
Chomsky: The Logical Structure of
Linguistic Theory (1975)
“A truly incredible work of the
highest degree of creativity.”
Frederick Newmeyer
Dennett: Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
(1995)
“Not many scientists are
great scientists. Not many
great scientists get to found
a whole new field.
But there are a few. Charles
Darwin was one – Noam
Chomsky is yet another.”
“It seems to me that language can clarify and in
part substantiate certain conclusions about
human knowledge that relate directly to classical
issues in the philosophy of mind.
It is in this domain, I suspect, that one can look
forward to a really fruitful collaboration between
linguistics and philosophy in the coming years.”
Noam Chomsky
Skinner: Beyond Freedom and Dignity
(1971)
“Physics advanced only when it
stopped personifying things
and attributing to them “wills,
impulses, feelings, purposes”.
Therefore the science of
behaviour will progress only
when it stops personifying
people, and avoids reference to
internal states.”
Chomsky’s reply to Skinner
“No doubt physics advanced by rejecting the view
the that the rock’s wish to fall is a factor in its
“behaviour” because in fact the rock has no such
wish. For Skinner’s argument to have force he
would have to show that people have wills,
impulses, feelings, purposes no more than rocks
do.
If however, people differ from rocks, the science
of human behaviour will have to take account of
this fact.”
Quote by Skinner in a TV interview
“Locke up Skinner and give
Chomsky Descartes blanche”
Aristotle: Peri Hermeneias
“As writing, so also is speech not the same for
all races of men. But the mental affectations
themselves, of which these words are
primarily signs, are the same for the whole of
mankind.”
Basset Jhones: Hermaelogium (1659)
“Reason is one, so it is observable that
the expression thereof in and by man is in
all countries the same.”
Beauzée: Grammaire générale (1767)
“Each language makes its own
selection of features within specific
and limited parameters.”
Louis de La Forge: Traité de l’esprit de
l’homme (1664)
Descartes’ friend claims this is the work
Descartes would have written had he lived
long enough.
Géraud de Cordemoy: Discours
physique de la parole (1668)
Expands Descartes’ brief comments into a
whole theory.
Descartes: Discours de la méthode
(1637)
“…….. not content with knowing all
that is intelligibly explained in their
author wish in addition to find in him
the solution of many difficulties of
which he says nothing, and perhaps
never thought.”
Descartes: Discours de la méthode
(1637)
“It never happens that it arranges its
speech in order to reply appropriately to
everything that may be said in its
presence.”
Descartes: Letter to More (1649)
Loquela unicum est
cogitationis in corpore
latentis signum certum.
To complete Descartes’ declension:
Cogito ergo sum
Loquitur ergo cogitat ergo est
PhilSoc member 2013
A theory should meet three levels of adequacy:
– Observational adequacy
– Descriptive adequacy
– Explanatory adequacy
• Observation
- Information
• Description
- Knowledge
• Explanation
- Understanding
Russell: History of Western Philosophy
(1945)
• “All definite knowledge belongs to science.”
• “But all the questions of most interest to
speculative minds are such as science cannot
answer.”
• “The studying of these questions if not
answering them is the business of philosophy.”
“ Let me walk with the seekers of wisdom
and truth,
but preserve me from those who have
found it”