Show 206a: Noam Chomsky – “Chomsky on Humanism”

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Noam Chomsky has been a leading intellectual of the Left for more than 35 years, and has written about, and spoke to, a variety of issues including capitalist economics, the nation-state – focusing on an extensive critique of the powers that be and the policies of the United States – education, socialism, war and peace and anarchism. He began his career in the study of language and is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th Century. He is currently the Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Recently, Professor Chomsky, author of over 30 books of science and of politics, has been the subject of an interview (along with Gilbert Achcar) by New Jersey based political scientist Stephen Shalom in the book titled, “Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy.” In this book, he discuses, among other things, the resurgence of religious fundamentalism in both the Middle East and within this country, and offers some perspective on what might be the cause(s) of the trend.

Also, in a recent interview in the Humanist, the flagship magazine of the American Humanist Association, Professor Chomsky continues his analysis of religious fundamentalism as well as talks about other issues at the core of the humanist worldview.

Equal Time for Freethought spoke to Professor Chomsky a few weeks ago on the substance of humanist thought from naturalism and religious critique to the political and economic structures which must be in place in order for us to affect the social changes necessary toward creating a humanistic future world society.

Part one of our discussion will focus on science and religion and part two on political and economic considerations. In the end, we hope our listeners will continue to be inspired and thoughtfully challenged toward implementing social change as this interview not only continues my recent series on evolution and human nature, and current series on economics, but on the larger humanist picture Equal Time for Freethought tries to paint each week.

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