Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (Current Studies in Linguistics) [Paperback]

Noam Chomsky (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262530708 | ISBN-13: 978-0262530705 | Publication Date: August 27, 1987

Language and Problems of Knowledge is Noam Chomsky's most accessible statement on the nature, origins, and current concerns of the field of linguistics. He frames the lectures with four fundamental questions: What do we know when we are able to speak and understand a language? How is this knowledge acquired? How do we use this knowledge? What are the physical mechanisms involved in the representation, acquisition, and use of this knowledge?Starting from basic concepts, Chomsky sketches the present state of our answers to these questions and offers prospects for future research. Much of the discussion revolves around our understanding of basic human nature (that we are unique in being able to produce a rich, highly articulated, and complex language on the basis of quite rudimentary data), and it is here that Chomsky's ideas on language relate to his ideas on politics.The initial versions of these lectures were given at the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua, in March 1986. A parallel set of lectures on contemporary political issues given at the same time has been published by South End Press under the title On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures.Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. Language and Problems of Knowledge is sixteenth in the series Current Studies in Linguistics, edited by Jay Keyser.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In these "somewhat extended versions" of lectures originally delivered in Nicaragua in 1986, Chomsky gives the nonspecialist his most accessible statement yet of his thinking on language and knowledge. Chomsky is not afraid to tackle some of the main problems of philosophy, for example, "Plato's problem" of how knowledge is possible. His approach is unique, grounded throughout in linguistic analyses (here, mostly of parallel constructs in Spanish and English). As a result of these analyses Chomsky concludes that our ability to know, to understand, and to use language must be innate, "a part of our biological endowment." Stimulating, though professional philosophers will likely denigrate the approach. Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

For Professor Chomsky, acquiring language and knowledge of our world is rooted in some innate human ability unique to our species. How we acquire this language, how we use it and the physical mechanisms involved are the subject of this study, his famous Managua Lectures. Gardner reads Chomsky at a moderately brisk clip, with no allowance for the difficulty of the material. Nevertheless, it's a discerning reading, attuned to every nuance of the professor's thought. For those used to philosophical discourse Gardner offers a great tool--the mind of Noam Chomsky. For the rest, buy the book and pore leisurely over the written text. P.E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (August 27, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262530708
• ISBN-13: 978-0262530705
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. A member of the American Academy of Science, he has published widely in both linguistics and current affairs. His books include At War with Asia, Towards a New Cold War, Fateful Triangle: The U. S., Israel and the Palestinians, Necessary Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy and Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, May 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Hardcover)

Reasonably quick read. Restates language as a side-effect of the brain's syntaxial approach in expressing thought.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chomsky, May 7, 2010

By 

Prahanova "jrc" (MARIETTA, GA, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)

Excellent speedy shipping and the book is outstanding. This book is to be part of the research for my Masters thesis. It is exciting and full of linguistic mini explosions. Linguistics is my passion!

6 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Chomsky's not the Genius he's made out to be, August 11, 2003

By 

Jason B. (Twin Cities, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (Current Studies in Linguistics) (Paperback)

Noam Chomsky insists that the mind-body problem can't be solved or formulated and that theories of meaning remain unsuccessful. Apparently he still perpetuates the extraordinary ignorance of Aristotilian/Thomistic philosophy that he has previously been so accused along with the rest of modern philosophy.

For example, in Mortimer Adler's 1967 work of genius, "The Difference of Man and the Difference it Makes", Adler has this to say about the mind-body argument of Aristotle and Aquinas on p.223, "Because the moderate immaterialism of Aristotle and Aquinas is totally neglected or ignored in the contemporary discussion, we cannot look for criticisms of it, or objections to it, in current philosophical literature."

More explicitly, Adler has this to say in the notes on p.329 about theories of Meaning - "The Institute For Philosophical Research is currently engaged in the study of the whole discussion of language and thought and especially the problem of meaning. We have examined most of the major twentieth-century treatments of this subject. We have found only two contemporary writers who indicate some awareness of the correct version of the triadic theory of meaning, J.N. Findlay and R. Chisholm. Others among contemporaries who comment on the triadic theory are either unacquainted with the Aristotilian version or so misunderstand it that they treat that version and the Lockean version as if they were identical, Ogden and Richards. The rest manifest no awareness at all of the triadic theory in its correct version and, in addition, do not seem to understand the problem that it tried to solve and succeeded in solving." To my knowledge Descartes, Locke, Hobbes, Liebniz, Spinoza, Hume, Berkley, Kant and Comte are all on the list of ingorant as well.

My Recommendations are Mortimer Adler's books "The Difference of Man and The Difference it Makes" (1967), and "Some Questions About Language" (1976 - without question the best book ever written on the subject), and Jacques Maritain's "Degrees of Knowledge" (1959), and John Deely's "What Distinguishes Human Understanding?" (2002). Other geniuses like Etienne Gilson are to be read by anybody interested in learning about philosophy.