Understanding Noam Chomsky #10: Chomsky, France, & Human Nature (with Jean Bricmont)

This conversation is part of the 'Understanding Noam Chomsky' Series ('Dare to know!' Philosophy Podcast). Today we are joined by Jean Bricmont. Jean Bricmont is a Belgian theoretical physicist and philosopher of science. He is Emeritus Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. His recent books include 'Quantum Sense and Nonsense', 'Making Sense of Quantum Mechanics', & he Co-Edited the book ‘Chomsky Notebook’.

GUEST INFO

BOOKS BY GUEST
- Quantum Sense and Nonsense (2017)
- Making Sense of Quantum Mechanics (2016)
- Chomsky Notebook (2010)

PODCAST CHANNELS:

HOST INFO:
My name is Fabian Corver, living in the Netherlands. I graduated from a Master's in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Currently, working for AI-focused start-up and reading lots of philosophy at night.

JOIN DISCORD (PHILOSOPHY, COGNITIVE SCIENCE, MACHINE LEARNING READING GROUP):

OUTLINE:
0:00​​​ - Introduction
0:40​ - Background
7:37 - Chomsky & France
16:25 - Biology & Right-Wing Politics
20:26 - Human Nature
26:37 - Chomsky-Foucault debate
40:44 - Science of morality
44:21 - Mind-Body problem
1:00:15 - Theories & Science

[Daretoknow]

OUTLINE:
0:00​​​ - Introduction
0:40​ - Background
7:37 - Chomsky & France
16:25 - Biology & Right-Wing Politics
20:26 - Human Nature
26:37 - Chomsky-Foucault debate
40:44 - Science of morality
44:21 - Mind-Body problem
1:00:15 - Theories & Science

[voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang]

Walter Lippmann is the name Jean was trying to remember - about "manufacturing consent" as the elite for the masses The title refers to consent of the governed, and derives from the phrase "the manufacture of consent" used by Walter Lippmann in Public Opinion (1922). The book was honored with the Orwell Award.

[backingtonature]

From Iraq- Kurdistan, thank you so much for all your videos.

[voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang]

I was a sled dog handler in Alaska and I was told to fold over and bite the dog's ear - because that's what the dogs do to each other.

[voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang]

That was fascinating - maybe Professor Bricmont is aware of Chomsky having some collaboration with Stuart Hameroff (and Roger Penrose)....

[voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang]

I'm reading Olivier Costa de Beauregard's book "Time: A physical magnitude" - and he quotes Descartes to explain the true meaning of "cogito" - Jean Bricmont probably has read that book. I agree with Beauregard's claim overall - except I defer to Bricmont on the EPR Bell inequality critique of Quantum Field Theory.

[ludviglidstrom]

Words can be used (and are used) as tools to refer to objective external things, but they don’t have an inherent reference in themselves. You can use the noun “house” to refer to a specific house, but the word itself does not have an inherent reference. It has an inherent meaning, but that’s a different matter. That is Chomsky’s point. Reference is an action that people do, not an inherent property of words.

[charlesbourgoigne]

Could you do a video about Thomas Sowell vs Noam Chomsky? Thomas Sowell is an economist and is the opposite of Chomsky I would say. It would be interesting to let their views clash.

[ludviglidstrom]

Okay, on the whole mind-body problem and the question of materialism, Chomsky’s point is that the world modern science describes is fundamentally incomprehensible to our common-sense understanding. Okay, so Einstein got rid of the infinite speed aspect of gravity, but he replaced it with curved space-time. Try to imagine a three dimensional space that is curved, or curved time for that matter. These concepts are not common-sense at all. There’s no version of modern physics that is comprehensible in the traditional Galilean sense ever since Newton. Action at a distance is just one thing among others of what makes modern physics occult. Since Newton science has searched for understandable THEORIES of the world, but the world they describe is no longer understandable.

[findbridge]

biology is not reduced to chemistry, that is absurd