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Early Life of Noam Chomsky
Chomsky was born in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, his parents were both Jewish, his father hailing from Ukraine (displaced by WWI), his mother was from Belarus.
Chomsky was politically active from a young age, discovering an interest in anarchism due to frequent visits to left-wing and anarchist bookstores.
At the age of 10, Chomsky wrote his first paper on the spread of fascism following the Spanish Civil War. -
Education
Chomsky started his college education early at the age of 16 in General Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
He earned his B.A. in theoretical linguistics in 195,1 he earned his M.S. in the same subject after revising his theory in Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew, which later became a book.
After being nominated to the Society of Fellows at Harvard, Chomskyaslo earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, which saved him from being drafted into the armed services during WWII. -
Chomsky and Political Activism
Chomsky, being active in anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism, was an activist against US involvement in Vietnam and subsequent wars. He publicly spoke out against the war and applauded draft dodging students. He was thought of by the US government as being such a threat that he was placed on President Nixon's "Enemies List". Ironically, Chomsky performed research at MIT on DoD projects, he fought to keep government funding at MIT. He continues to be politically active to this day. -
Getting to Philosophy
Chomsky notably active in linguistics and criticized many prominent names in the field including Harris & Bloomfield. His criticisms were said to have caused a revolution in the scientific study of language.
He later argued against B. F. Skinner's view that language was a learned behavior, more specifically noting that Skinner ignored human creativity in linguistics. After his reviews he earned "Established Intellectual" status and he co-founded the MIT Grad Program in Linguistics. -
Chomsky's works
Chomsky continues to be involved in Linguistic Philosophy. He has a library of publications books and has contributed to many films. Below are the Citations for his major works in linguistic philosophy.
Chomsky, Syntactic Structures 1957. The Hague/Paris Mouton.
Chomsky, The Logical Basis for Linguistic Theory, 1962 Linguists Cambridge/MA.
Chomsky 1964, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. The Hague: Mouton.
Chomsky with James McGilvray, 2102 The Science of Language. Cambridge University Press
