The father of modern linguistics; the most important intellectual alive; one of the world´s most controversial thinkers – these are titles Noam Chomsky has been referred to. No matter what you think of this renaissance man (who by the way, is considered a major American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist), one thing is for sure – Noam Chomsky is one of the world´s most visible, well-known and influential intellectuals. Apart from his controversial politics, he has also been a renowned professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he now serves as Institute Professor Emeritus. As Noam Chomsky is undoubtedly anything but an ordinary man, we decided to take a closer look at this prominent intellectual and compile a list with some lesser known facts about Noam Chomsky. So if you are interested in learning about Chomsky’s first political article; or about the many films he has starred in, what animal was named after him or his monitoring by the CIA, check out these 25 Facts About Noam Chomsky You Might Not Know.
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Chomsky was born in 1928 in Philadelphia into a middle-class Ashkenazi Jewish family. He was raised Jewish and his full Jewish name is Avram Noam Chomsky.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org 24
Both of Chomsky´s parents were East European immigrants – his father William Chomsky was a Ukrainian and his mother Elsie Simonofsky was Belarusian.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: flickr.com23
Chomsky faced anti-semitism as a child, particularly from German communities living in Philadelphia. He recalls German "beer parties" in his neighborhood celebrating the fall of Paris to the Nazis.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: de.wikipedia.org22
Chomsky wrote his first article when he was just ten years old. The article was about the spread of fascism, following the fall of Barcelona to Francisco Franco's fascist army in the Spanish Civil War.
Source and image: en.wikipedia.org21
He became interested in anarchist politics after he frequented left-wing and anarchist bookstores while visiting his relatives in New York. At the age of just 12 or 13, he became fully identified with anarchism. Chomsky later described his discovery of anarchism as "a lucky accident”.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org 20
Chomsky received three university degrees (B.A., M.A. and PhD. – all in linguistics) at the University of Pennsylvania. Has was also named to the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where he undertook research on what would become his doctoral dissertation.
Source and image: en.wikipedia.org19
Chomsky is a leading critic of US foreign policy, capitalism and mainstream media and he has even got arrested multiple times for his open opinions, writings and lectures.
Source: famousphilosophers.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org18
Chomsky has already written over a hundred books on a number of topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: youtube.com17
Chomsky´s criticism of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, was one of the things that earned him a place on President Richard Nixon's Enemies List, a list of Nixon´s political opponents.
Source and image: en.wikipedia.org16
His criticism of US policy, capitalism and news media have been so strong and radical that some of his critics have actually accused Chomsky of anti-Americanism and apologia for terrorism.
Source and image: en.wikipedia.org15
Chomsky was greatly influenced by Rudolf Rocker, a German anarcho-syndicalist, and George Orwell, an English democratic socialist and famous author.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org 14
Chomsky is one of the most-cited living sources as he is the author of hundreds of interesting quotes, including the popular one: “I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.”
Source: prosebeforehos.com, image: commons.wikimedia.org 13
Chomsky is known for his specific dry humor. After working as a renowned linguistic professor at MIT for more than 50 years, he said he had “absolutely no professional credentials”. In the same interview, Chomsky also said his success was “a series of accidents”.
Source: www.critical-theory.com, image: commons.wikimedia.org 12
In an interview for the New York Times in 1969, Chomsky described the Pentagon as “one of the most evil institutions in world history,” ”the most hideous institution on Earth,” which ”constitutes a menace to human life.”
Source: newsofinterest.tv, image: en.wikipedia.org 11
Apart from all the fields and activities we have mentioned earlier, Noam Chomsky is also interested in environmental efforts. He has given several lectures on global warming issues, for instance.
Source: a2larm.cz, image: commons.wikimedia.org 10
In a poll conducted in 2005, Chomsky was voted as the “World’s Top Public Intellectual”. He beat off challenges from Umberto Eco, Richard Dawkins, Vaclav Havel and Christopher Hitchens to win the poll.
Source: theguardian.com, image: youtube.com 9
Chomsky has been given dozens of various honorary degrees, awards and prizes including the Sydney Peace Prize, the Erich Fromm Prize etc. In 2011, he was even conducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems' AI's Hall of Fame for "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems.
Source: famousphilosophers.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org8
In 2013, a newly discovered bee species was named after Chomsky. Now known as Megachile Chomskyi, the bee is endemic to Texas.
Source: natureworldnews.com, image: commons.wikimedia.org 7
An avid reader, he reads four or five newspapers daily, subscribing to the The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and The Christian Science Monitor.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: flickr.com6
Chomsky has starred in over 160 films, documentaries and TV series including “Best of Enemies”, “Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?”, “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” and many other.
Source: imdb.com, image: commons.wikimedia.org 5
Chomsky is a good friend of Hugo Chávez, a former Venezuelan President (serving from 1999 to 2013). In 2011, Chávez even suggested Washington make Chomsky the US ambassador to Venezuela.
Source: theguardian.com, image: commons.wikimedia.org 4
Despite having been raised Jewish, Chomsky is currently non-religious, although he has expressed approval of forms of religion such as liberation theology.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org 3
Chomsky is uninterested in appearances and the fame that his work has brought him as well as he has little interest in modern art and music.
Source and image: en.wikipedia.org2
Chomsky´s 1957 academic work "Syntactic Structures" revolutionized the field of linguistics, fundamentally changing the current understanding of language and mind.
Source: www.imdb.com, image: en.wikipedia.org 1
A document obtained pursuant to a request under the Freedom of Information Act from the U.S. government reveals that CIA monitored activities of Chomsky and for years denied doing so. CIA also destroyed its files on Chomsky at some point in time, possibly in violation of federal law.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org Lists Going Viral Right Now
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