Abstract

An introduction for the non-specialist to Chomsky’s thought that explores some of its philosophical implications. Although this is a book about Chomsky, it is a good deal more: Leiber uses Chomsky’s linguistics to point to defects he perceives in Anglo-American analytical philosophy. He contends that a striking feature of Chomsky’s work has been his attempt to breakdown divisions between various spheres of knowledge and to show the interconnections between questions and answers within them which modern methods of scholarship have kept separate. He maintains that most criticisms of Chomsky’s ideas are misguided because they separate his general theses in philosophy and psychology from technical results obtained within linguistics. Leiber holds that one must understand Chomsky’s specific proposals in linguistics before one can assess his positions in other areas.