The Ideas of Chomsky - Bryan Magee & Noam Chomsky (1977)

In this program, Noam Chomsky discusses his work and its philosophical implications for knowledge and thought with Bryan Magee. This is from a 1977 series on Modern Philosophy called Men of Ideas.

00:00 Introduction
03:43 The Language Faculty
14:50 Rigid Pre-Programming
34:22 The Empirical Tradition
39:35 Liberalism

#Philosophy #Chomsky #BryanMagee

[robertpoen]

This is Noam's best linguistics and philosophy interview out there. Why? Because Magee's questions are penetrating and completely up to speed.

[BogdanLiviu]

Men of Ideas, 1978!!!! Is there a tv show in 2022 that gets close to this quality? No. And we think we're evolving...
Thank you, Sir, for uploading these miracles and greetings from Romania!

[borderedge]

What an amazing interview - both at the top of their game in their own right

[johnsorrelw]

One can exercise one's innate cognitive capacities so much more effectively on a non-monetized channel like this that spares us the random interruptions of commercials that is the usual annoying YouTube experience. Thank you, Philosophy Overdose!

[MarkTarmannPianoCheck_it_out]

My knowledge and understanding of philosophy and related subjects expands immensely only from hearing the introductions from Mr. Magee. Clearly well qualified, yet accessible interviewing style, well suited for laymen such as meself.

[BrucknerMotet]

8:47 Chomsky (after being asked one of McGee's exceptionally clear and focused questions), makes a claim that something is "certainly true" but then immediately realizes this as an overly hopeful claim and immediately revises his claim to state that "at least we believe it to be true in principle".. This is a really, really good lesson for all of us to maintain integrity and fidelity in our serious conversations with others. If you're having a conversation and you make a claim but immediately thereafter realize that said claim is indefensible, it's your duty to state your correction out loud ASAP to clear things up with your interlocutor. Otherwise your flawed claim will usually sink in to the other's subconscious (conversation requiring patience and excellent ability to memorize and recall memories of what was said earlier in the long, drawn out conversation) and become part of your interlocutor's beliefs about you and it will be hard to undo those beliefs through belated correction.

[thetruthoutside]

Excellent, the interviewer has the ability to ask THE most relevant questions and Chomsky has such an agility in the way he thinks to explain what is very difficult to comprehend.

[stevenhines]

Wow. That bit at the end about the line between classical liberalism in post-feudal yet pre-capitalist economy and then modern libertarian socialism in an industrial capitalist world blew Magee's mind. Mine too but in the following sense: classical liberalism always resonated but I have never been capable of analyzing its application to shifting global economic paradigms. Thank you AGAIN Professor Chomsky.

[davidw]

15:25 This is a brilliant twist. The rigid constraints of our language ability are what make the power and creativity of language possible.

[longcastle]

Always such a learning experience to listen to Chomsky...

[sweetcell]

This is such a great discussion. Eons ahead of Eric Weinstein and Lex Fridman bumbling through 2 hours of YouTube.

[FaraZaminii]

Bryan Magee is such a Legend; always got the best conversations goings with the right questions and responses . BBC values nonsense in our life time which is extremely sad.

[danielpincus]

As someone said somewhere online, Chomsky gives the impression of being casually superhuman.

[mandytiffany]

Brilliant programme. I think that it was on a Sunday afternoon on BBC 2. I still have the hard back book.

[joshuakehl]

I am very appreciative of this channel. Thank you.

[lamalama]

Great interview but for me it stopped just as it became interesting. Would've liked to hear an expansion on the implication of his linguistic view for his politics.

[christinemartin]

This interview made me think a long, hard time.

[Agentai_ai]

Chomaky is underrated as a linguist. A brilliant interview.

[lonelycubicle]

The biggest point taken from this interview is wishing I had read and studied more, but amor fati, right? If anyone else was curious who the British Platonist is who Chomsky mentioned (if heard correctly):

[MaserameMatlafi]

Noam's range is staggering. What a mind!