Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia. An American intellectual, philosopher, linguist, political activist, and social critic, he is often called the father of modern linguistics and is a key figure in analytic philosophy and a founder of cognitive science. He holds positions as a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at MIT. One of the most cited living authors, he has published over 150 books on linguistics, war, and politics. Since the 1960s, he has been a prominent voice on the American Left, consistently criticizing U.S. foreign policy, capitalism, and corporatocracy.

Chomsky was born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. His father, William, fled the Russian Empire in 1913 to avoid conscription, working in Baltimore sweatshops and Hebrew schools before attending college. His mother, Elsie Simonofsky, emigrated from what is now Belarus. Both parents spoke Yiddish as their first language, though it was taboo at home; his father spoke English with an accent, while his mother spoke a native New York City dialect. William became principal of a Philadelphia religious school and joined the Gratz College faculty, emphasizing education that fosters independent, integrated thinking and concern for improving the world—a mission his son adopted. Elsie, also a teacher, shared her leftist politics and social concerns with her sons. Chomsky’s only sibling, David, became a cardiologist; the brothers were close, though Noam was competitive. Raised Jewish, they learned Hebrew and discussed Zionist political theories, influenced by the Left Zionist writings of Ahad Ha'am. They faced antisemitism from Philadelphia’s Irish and German communities.

Chomsky attended the Deweyite Oak Lane Country Day School and Philadelphia’s Central High School, where he excelled academically but disliked the school’s hierarchical teaching. He also attended Hebrew High School at Gratz College. His parents were “normal Roosevelt Democrats” with center-left views, but relatives in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union introduced him to socialism and far-left politics. He was heavily influenced by his uncle and Jewish leftists who debated current affairs at a New York City newspaper stand, and he often visited left-wing and anarchist bookstores there.

He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During postgraduate work at the Harvard Society of Fellows, he developed transformational grammar, earning his doctorate in 1955. That year, he began teaching at MIT. In 1957, his landmark work *Syntactic Structures* reshaped the study of language. From 1958 to 1959, he was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created universal grammar, generative grammar, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. He played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, particularly criticizing B. F. Skinner.

An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as imperialism, Chomsky gained national attention in 1967 for his anti-war essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals.” Associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for activism and placed on President Richard Nixon’s list of political opponents. His linguistic work sparked the linguistics wars in the 1960s. With Edward S. Herman, he developed the propaganda model of media criticism in *Manufacturing Consent* and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional free speech, including Holocaust denial, caused controversy in the 1980s Faurisson affair. His commentary on the Cambodian and Bosnian genocides also sparked debate. Since retiring from MIT, he has continued activism, opposing the 2003 Iraq invasion and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, he considers Israel’s treatment of Palestinians worse than South African apartheid and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.

Chomsky is widely credited with sparking the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, providing a cognitivistic framework for studying language and the mind. He remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, capitalism, U.S. involvement in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. His ideas are highly influential in anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements.