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The Idea of Universality in Linguistics and Human Rights

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The Idea of Universality in Linguistics and Human Rights The Idea of Universality in Linguistics and Human Rights SPEAKER: Noam Chomsky Institute Professor; Professor of Linguistics SPEAKER: Elizabeth S. Spelke Professor of Psychology Co- Director, Mind, Brain, and Behavior Inter-faculty Initiative, Harvard University. The Idea of SPEAKERS: Universality in Noam Chomsky: Institute Professor; Professor of Linguistics Linguistics and Human Rights Elizabeth S. Spelke: Professor of Psychology Co-Director, Noam Chomsky Mind, Brain, and Behavior Inter-faculty Initiative, Harvard March 15,2005 University. Time 00:57:13 ABOUT THE LECTURE: If humans have a common, in-born capacity for language, and Audio Only: for such complex behaviors as morality, might the faculties be QuickTime – 28MB somehow linked? Noam Chomsky perceives a mere thread of MP3 - 70MB a connection. At breakneck speed, Chomsky leads us through Audio and Video: a history of language theory, concluding with the revolutionary QuickTime - 371MB model he championed: a universal grammar underpinning all WindowsMedia - 313MB languages that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human RealVideo - 101MB brain. While scientists may now have a “clearer grasp of the universals of language,” says Chomsky, notions of universality grow murky as we move “into domains of will, choice and judgment.” Chomsky cites the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one example of “broad cross-cultural consensus.” But he brandishes examples of how “our moral and intellectual culture….forcefully rejects universal moral judgments” -- such as continued U.S. refusal to approve anti- From mitworld.mit.edu/video/257/ 1 24 November 2005 torture conventions. In contrast, Elizabeth Spelke forcefully links “universals in human nature to some of the developments in bringing about a greater balance in human rights.” Thirty years of cognitive and cross cultural research show that humans universally structure their world in terms of objects, have a universal capacity to represent numbers, and to represent other people as “intentional, goal-directed agents whose freely chosen actions are subject to moral evaluation.” Variation among humans flows from another universal capacity: to “freely combine concepts from different core systems.” Spelke speculates that “humans might be gripped by a tremendous illusion that different members of different groups really are fundamentally different” – an illusion that might drive us to conflict and rights abuses. These aspects of human nature pose a major challenge, but, Spelke concludes, a more fundamental faculty “holds the potential key to remedy”—our capacity to “articulate deeply entrenched notions, criticize and get beyond them.” ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Noam Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. A brief sampling of his prolific work includes: The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory; Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; Reflections on Language; Rules and Representations; Knowledge of Language; The Culture of Terrorism; Manufacturing Consent (with E.S. Herman); Understanding Power (New Press, 2002); and most recently, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (Henry Holt and Company, 2003). Chomsky received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. He joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. During the years 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. In the spring of 1969 he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford; in January 1970 he delivered the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at Cambridge University; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, and in 1977, the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, among many others. Chomsky has received honorary degrees from universities around the world, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. Before arriving at Harvard University, Elizabeth Spelke was a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at From mitworld.mit.edu/video/257/ 2 24 November 2005 MIT, and in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among her numerous honors, Spelke was among Time Magazine's America's Best in Science and Medicine. She received the William James Award from the American Psychological Society. Spelke earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College and her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1978. NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index): Video length is 1:38:30. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Director, MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice, and Ford International Assistant Professor of Law and Development, introduces the event, thanks series sponsors and introduces the speakers. At 6:58, Noam Chomsky begins. At 56:21, Elizabeth Spelke begins. At 1:16:02, Q&A begins. From mitworld.mit.edu/video/257/ 3 24 November 2005 Noam Chomsky Institute Professor; Professor of Linguistics Linguistic Theory, Syntax, Semantics, Philosophy of Language Biography Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. During the years 1951 to 1955, Chomsky was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows. While a Junior Fellow he completed his doctoral dissertation entitled, "Transformational Analysis." The major theoretical viewpoints of the dissertation appeared in the monograph Syntactic Structure, which was published in 1957. This formed part of a more extensive work, The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, circulated in mimeograph in 1955 and published in 1975. Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.) From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics. In 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. During the years 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ. In the spring of 1969 he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford; in January 1970 he delivered the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at Cambridge University; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in From mitworld.mit.edu/video/257/ 4 24 November 2005 New Delhi, and in 1977, the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, among many others. Professor Chomsky has received honorary degrees from University of London, University of Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, Swarthmore College, Delhi University, Bard College, University of Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Amherst College, Cambridge University, University of Buenos Aires, McGill University, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, Columbia University, University of Connecticut, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto, Harvard University, University of Calcutta, and Universidad Nacional De Colombia. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science. In addition, he is a member of other professional and learned societies in the United States and abroad, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others. Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. His works include: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Cartesian Linguistics; Sound Pattern of English (with Morris Halle); Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; At War with Asia; For Reasons of State; Peace in the Middle East?; Reflections on Language; The Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. I and II (with E.S. Herman); Rules and Representations; Lectures on Government and Binding; Towards a New Cold War; Radical Priorities; Fateful Triangle; Knowledge of Language; Turning the Tide; Pirates and Emperors; On Power and Ideology; Language and Problems of Knowledge; The Culture of Terrorism; Manufacturing Consent (with E.S. Herman); Necessary Illusions; Deterring Democracy; Year 501; Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War and US Political Culture; Letters from Lexington; World Orders, Old and New; The Minimalist Program; Powers and Prospects; The Common Good; Profit Over People; The New Military Humanism; New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind; Rogue States; A New Generation Draws the Line; 9- 11; and Understanding Power. Rev. 1/02 From mitworld.mit.edu/video/257/ 5 24 November 2005 Book Publications Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory. MIT Humanities Library. Microfilm. 1955. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton, 1957. Reprint. Berlin and New York, 1985. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1965. (Excerpted as Saussure Jakobson Hjelmslev Chomsky. Textos Selecionados, edited by V. Civita. Sao Paulo: Abril S.A. Cultural, 1985; Chapter
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