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66 - Noam Chomsky: History and Philosophy of Linguistics

66 - Noam Chomsky: History and Philosophy of Linguistics

Robinson's Podcast vor 3 Jahren

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1:04:26

Noam Chomsky is Professor of Linguistics Emeritus at MIT and
Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona.
He not only counts as among the most influential linguists of all
time, but he has played a major role in the development of
twentieth and twenty-first century philosophy, cognitive science,
and political theory. Noam and Robinson talk about some of the
major topics in modern linguistics, ranging from generative and
universal grammar to innateness hypotheses and the current
limitations of large language models for studying human
linguistic faculties. There are also philosophical dimensions to
the conversation, as Noam touches on his time with Nelson
Goodman, Hilary Putnam, and W. V. O. Quine, while other
concerns—such as the indeterminacy of reference and the
relationship between thought and language—recur throughout the
discussion.

OUTLINE:

00:00 In This Episode…

00:27 Introduction

8:32 Noam’s Entry into Linguistics

11:03 Ferdinand de Saussure and Twentieth Century Linguistics

23:04 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

26:00 Thoughts on Language and Behaviorism

35:24 Innateness Hypotheses in Linguistics

42:00 Innateness and Universal Grammar

46:02 Limitations of Large Language Models

48:42 Impossible Languages and What Linguists Study

1:00:10 Historical Shifts in Linguistics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of
mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations
with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and
everyone in-between.