Introducing Chomsky [Paperback]

John Maher (Author), Judy Groves (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Introducing | Publication Date: February 10, 1993

This work looks at the theories of Noam Chomsky, which went beyond the world of linguistics, making claims about the relationship between the language and the mind.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book series is part of an alarming trend in higher education?learning through amusement?and an even more alarming new genre?intellectual comic books trafficking as serious learning tools. It is to philosophy what the Classic Comic is to literature and the campaign ad to politics: Cliff Notes meet the sound bite. Short on text and long on large cartoons?emotivism gets 13 lines and four dialog balloons; the Theory of Forms seven lines and two balloons?the texts badly introduce individual thinkers or areas of thought. The sound bite is empty enough when presenting facts, but as a way to get across concepts, positions and arguments, it is self-defeating. These works necessarily emphasize what the thinker thinks, presented informationally, not why or how those conclusions were reached. Thus, even when the texts aren't superficial, the thinkers' claims are utterly obscure. The art work is high quality and witty, and the agenda clearly postmodern?Kant is read as a protodeconstructionist, the universalist enterprise of ethics gets mocked. Thus, their best audience is the opposite of the one intended: not the beginner but the advanced reader of philosophy who can appreciate the fun. At their best, these works belong in Father Guido Sarducci's "Five-Minute College," in which for each course he gives a slogan. At their worst, these books will change remembering a slogan to remembering a picture. Not recommended.?Lee Horvitz, Miami Univ., Middletown, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

John Maher has won the Francis McManus Short Story Award, the P.J. O'Connor Radio Play Award, with R.T.E. Radio, the Arts Council of Ireland's premier award, The Lar Cassidy Memorial Award for a novel-in-progress, along with other awards and fellowships. Born in 1954, he lives in Rathdowney, Co. Laois and has three children.

Judy Groves is a painter, graphic designer and illustrator. She has illustrated numerous titles.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Totem Books (February 10, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1874166420
• ISBN-13: 978-1874166429
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,197,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless as an Introduction, May 15, 2001

By 

J. Thiry (Munich) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introducing Chomsky (Paperback)

As a avid reader of books on evolutionary psychology and sociobiology, and a foreign language graduate, I thought I would be able to cope with the degree of difficulty of this "Introduction". In fact, I gave up trying one third into the book. Not only are the technical terms not defined, but any attempt to derive their meaning or establish relationships between concepts failed.Much of the argument is enigmatic rather than explanatory. Many utterances seem to be drawn out of context.

At least as an introduction to a difficult subject, there's nothing for it but to regard this book as a failure.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is NOT an introduction., February 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Introducing Chomsky (Paperback)

It's not accurate to title this book "Introducing Chomsky." I was able to follow it, but I spent six years in a graduate program in linguistics.... The book is mildly entertaining, even if it is disgustingly fawning, but I could not recommend it to a non-linguist who wanted an introduction to Chomsky's thought. There's simply too much use of technical terms without defining them, mixing of difficult technical concepts, etc.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting social part but liguistics part too complicated, December 31, 2001

By 

alexliamw (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Chomsky (Paperback)

Introducing Chomsky is divided into two sections:

a) First 122 pages: concerned with his theories of linguistics. Utterly fails to make it understandable for begginers. I found myself drowning in a subject I didn't particularly want to read about anyway (I bought this for the second section, which is:)

b) Last 70 or so pages: concerned with Chomsky's social critique. Extremely interesting, worthwhile read and a good introduction for begginers. Even this opens our eyes to a lot of truths and should push any reader who can get past the dreary linguistics section on to Chomsky's own works on government, propaganda and politics.