Well, you do have to say Foucault was into linguistic innovation in English... specifically, reusing the noun "fist" as a verb ;) Yes, the same perversion used as a lyrical metaphor for ever more extreme stimulation in Tool's "Track #1"
Great Essay, as usual! It is very strange to me that Chomsky is much better known for mediocre political writing than for his breathtaking achievements in behavioral and cognitive science and his philosophy thereof. Always nice to read what todays top scholars have to say about the best of his work. Looking forward to your book!
Thanks a lot! Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Chomsky's political writings either. Although he's one of the "good guys" in this chapter on postmodernism, he actually comes in for a thrashing in the next chapter on anti-western ideology (especially on the Syrian civil war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine). Stay tuned!
Maarten, ik wist niets van deze ontmoeting tussen Foucault en Chomsky. Super boeiend! Ik begrijp dat je meer daarover verteld in je boek. Ik zal het aanschaffen en lezen, waarschijnlijk in het Nederlands.
Ik wens je heel veel succes. Je bent een van de weinigen die zijn gezonde verstand behouden heeft. Als ook een moreel Kompass.
Having read som Foucault and some Chomsky, I can say that the former had little of lasting value for me, the latter has a lot of interesting ideas. Moral progress, if we should even call it that, is real. But it unfortunately does not seem to come from moral reasoning, but from enhances opportunities and wealth. As artificial meat becomes cheaper and more accessible for instance, we will abandon real meat for the artificial. Later generations will look back at this as a moral progress, but moral reasoning and moral choices wasn't the main cause of it imo.
I agree! People often underestimate how much moral progress has depended on technological progress, and how many reforms would have been impossible without it. The abolition of slavery and child labor, the rise of feminism, and the expansion of reproductive freedom were all facilitated by material and technological progress. And as you point out, when it comes to animal welfare, artificial meat is far more likely to be transformative than moral exhortation alone.
Chomsky's Transformational Generic Grammer (TGG) has been falsified by Large Language Systems that use massive input of grammatical structures that were improved by moderators appeared more successful in getting results. In the 90's I studied (Dutch) language at Radboud University, in which TGG was part of the curriculum.
Interesting! I'm not a linguist myself, but I believe Chomsky's framework is outdated indeed. He's very dismissive of LLMs, apparently blinded by his strict adherence to TGG.
Couple of things about your draft. Firstly , you deliberately misrepresenting Foucault by implying he said something that is inherently unlikely and which a check of the debate transcript confirms he didn't say. Secondly, your misrepresentation has already been amplified by social media, to which false claims about Foucault, later withdrawn by the accuser, have been added. Not impressive.
You don't even bother to mention WHAT I have allegedy "misrepresented", and you immediately start speculating about harmful consequences. Not impressive. ;)
Well, you do have to say Foucault was into linguistic innovation in English... specifically, reusing the noun "fist" as a verb ;) Yes, the same perversion used as a lyrical metaphor for ever more extreme stimulation in Tool's "Track #1"
I look forward to reading your book! I feel like there is a “slight of hand” in post-modernism that I can’t pin down. Does your book
deal with that or can you point to other readings to explore it?
Yes, definitely! I'll discuss the "motte-and-bailey" strategies of postmodernists at length (see Nicholas Shackel).
Great Essay, as usual! It is very strange to me that Chomsky is much better known for mediocre political writing than for his breathtaking achievements in behavioral and cognitive science and his philosophy thereof. Always nice to read what todays top scholars have to say about the best of his work. Looking forward to your book!
Thanks a lot! Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Chomsky's political writings either. Although he's one of the "good guys" in this chapter on postmodernism, he actually comes in for a thrashing in the next chapter on anti-western ideology (especially on the Syrian civil war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine). Stay tuned!
Awesome! Seriously looking forward to that!
Maarten, ik wist niets van deze ontmoeting tussen Foucault en Chomsky. Super boeiend! Ik begrijp dat je meer daarover verteld in je boek. Ik zal het aanschaffen en lezen, waarschijnlijk in het Nederlands.
Ik wens je heel veel succes. Je bent een van de weinigen die zijn gezonde verstand behouden heeft. Als ook een moreel Kompass.
Veel dank! Ja, ik schrijf er uitgebreid over in hoofdstuk 1 van mijn boek: https://uitgeverijprometheus.nl/boeken/verraad-aan-de-verlichting-paperback/
Dank je wel. Ook als e-boek, ik woon niet meer in Nederland. Super!
ditto to everything you said...but i'll be reading it in English. :)
Having read som Foucault and some Chomsky, I can say that the former had little of lasting value for me, the latter has a lot of interesting ideas. Moral progress, if we should even call it that, is real. But it unfortunately does not seem to come from moral reasoning, but from enhances opportunities and wealth. As artificial meat becomes cheaper and more accessible for instance, we will abandon real meat for the artificial. Later generations will look back at this as a moral progress, but moral reasoning and moral choices wasn't the main cause of it imo.
I agree! People often underestimate how much moral progress has depended on technological progress, and how many reforms would have been impossible without it. The abolition of slavery and child labor, the rise of feminism, and the expansion of reproductive freedom were all facilitated by material and technological progress. And as you point out, when it comes to animal welfare, artificial meat is far more likely to be transformative than moral exhortation alone.
Chomsky's Transformational Generic Grammer (TGG) has been falsified by Large Language Systems that use massive input of grammatical structures that were improved by moderators appeared more successful in getting results. In the 90's I studied (Dutch) language at Radboud University, in which TGG was part of the curriculum.
Interesting! I'm not a linguist myself, but I believe Chomsky's framework is outdated indeed. He's very dismissive of LLMs, apparently blinded by his strict adherence to TGG.
The daughter of a dear friend is a linguistics professor at a big-name US university, and she shares your skeptical view.
Congratulations on the book! I will check it out.
Thanks a lot!
Couple of things about your draft. Firstly , you deliberately misrepresenting Foucault by implying he said something that is inherently unlikely and which a check of the debate transcript confirms he didn't say. Secondly, your misrepresentation has already been amplified by social media, to which false claims about Foucault, later withdrawn by the accuser, have been added. Not impressive.
You don't even bother to mention WHAT I have allegedy "misrepresented", and you immediately start speculating about harmful consequences. Not impressive. ;)
Quote: "For Foucault, concepts like “truth” and “knowledge” are inextricably bound up with prevailing structures of power."
That certainly use to be the case. But no longer: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6227200