SBS Lecture Series: Noam Chomsky

In February 2012, The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona, in collaboration with the Confluence Center for Creative Inquiry and the Department of Linguistics, sponsored two lectures with Noam Chomsky. On February 7th, "What is Special About Language?" and on Feb. 8th, “An Evening with Noam Chomsky: Education for Whom and for What?"

Noam Chomsky is an Institute Professor and a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked for more than 50 years. Chomsky, who according to The New York Times is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” is credited with revolutionizing the field of linguistics by introducing generative grammar and the concept of a universal grammar, which underlies all human language and is based in the innate structure of language. Beyond linguistics, his work has influenced fields such as cognitive science, philosophy, computer science, mathematics, and psychology.