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Chomsky’s Descartes: Remarks on the Importance of Descartes’s Thought for Chomsky’s Research on Language and Cognition
Sławomir Sztajer
Abstract
The article focuses on Chomsky’s interpretation of the philosophy of Descartes as well as on the importance of selected Descartes’s ideas for the theories of language and cognition developed by Chomsky. The main questions concerns the actual influence of Descartes on the theory proposed by Chomsky, especially on the so called Cartesian linguistics. The thesis is advanced that although it is possible to point out several Cartesian ideas that influenced Chomsky’s thought, it cannot be said that this influence was essential to the development of his theory of language and cognition. Descartes played no essential role in the development of the linguistic tradition that continued until the 19th century and that is still visible in the present day linguistics. The term “Cartesian linguistics” does not refer to any coherent body of knowledge concerning language. The alleged representatives of Cartesian linguistics do not share any essential assumptions and thus they cannot be seen as representatives of the same tradition.
Keywords:
Descartes, Chomsky, Cartesian linguistics, language, cognitionDetails
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.