-
Avram Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
-
At the age of 16, he attended the University of Pennsylvania.
-
During his master's thesis, he adopted Nelson Goodman's views on formal systems and the philosophy of science and transformed them into a novel.
-
Noam received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.
-
Noam was appointed to a teaching position at MIT, and he later established a new graduate program in linguistics.
-
Noam argued against famous psychologist Skinner that human beings were born with the ability to realize the generative grammars that constitute every human language.
-
Noam was appointed as a full professor at MIT. He later was appointed Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics in 1966, and Institute Professor in 1976 at MIT.
-
Noam became more vocal and publicly involved in speaking out as an activist against the Vietnam War (or the Vietnam invasion as he would say)
-
In one of his first political essays, he discussed cases where intellectuals in powerful positions failed to tell the truth and lied about the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War
-
Noam and economist Edward Herman analyzed journalists reporting in the mainstream media. They showed evidence of selection, skewing of data, filtering of information, and outright invention in support of assumptions that helped to justify the controlling influence of corporations in U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics.
-
He wrote in Necessary Illusions, "The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly."
-
Noam retired as professor emeritus from MIT.
-