View Single Post
Old 12-12-2005, 07:04 PM   #9
northernflame
Lifetime Suspension
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Exp:
Default

Quote:
But that's a-okay with Chomsky, the same guy who supported Pol Pot long after genocide was exposed in Cambodia.

It was just a stupid thing to say. . . . but not for a blind, life-long, ideologue on his last legs.
Funny, even those who don't exactly agree with all that Chomsky has to say - and by 'those' I mean fellow scientitsts - heap praise on him for being an exceptional scientist in his own right.

"Not many scientists are great scientists, and not many great scientists get to found a whole new field, but there are a few. Charles Darwin is one; Noam Chomsky is yet another." (From Dennet's "Darwin's Dangerous Idea; page 385).

Now, I think most would agree that about the farthest one could be from an idealougue is to be a scientist. I mean a scientist in the true sense of formulating theories that are empirically testable.

He may be on his last legs, and surely has made his fair share of mistakes in his life (haven't we all?), but to generalize and discount all of his work based on your cursory reading of his political views doesn't do justice to the man, nor does it do justice to the worthy enterprise of honest intellectual effort.

Last edited by northernflame; 12-12-2005 at 07:12 PM.
northernflame is offline   Reply With Quote