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Early Life
Noah Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania into a middle-class Jewish family. Interestingly enough he attended a school that promoted self-directed learning, where he could focus on subjects that were of interest to him. By the age of 10 he wrote an article on fascism in Europe that was later the foundation for “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” (1969). -
Early Life cont.
Noah began taking trips to New York City at just 13 years old where he became involved with the intellectual community which formed the basis for his developing political ideology. His idea of the perfect political system "is one in which all people have a maximal opportunity to engage in cooperative activity with others and to take part in all decisions of the community that affect them". -
University
At the young age of 16 Noah enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania however the curriculum did not suite his desires. He was re-inspired after meeting the linguist Zellig S. Harris and under his direction took courses in philosophy with Nelson Goodman as well as mathematics. -
Professional Oppositions
Chomsky differed in opinion on some ideas that Goodman and Harris had, and when making his ideas known, was largely ignored by his mentors, Goodman going so far as to denounce Chomsky's work for disagreeing with him. Despite this Noah received his Ph.D. and was appointed to a teaching position at MIT shortly after, where he remained for nearly his whole career. -
Legacy
Currently teaching at the University of Arizona since 2017, Chomsky continues adding to his contributions to linguistics, building on top of major works such as Cartesian Linguistics (1966), Reflections on Language (1975), and The Minimalist Program (1995).