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Quote by Noam Chomsky

“There is nothing more mysterious about the concept human nature than about the concept bee or chicken nature, at least for those who regard humans as creatures in the biological world.”

Quote by Noam Chomsky

Author

Noam Chomsky, born on December 7, 1928, is a renowned linguist from the United States. His research in generative grammar and transformational grammar has had a profound impact on modern linguistics. Chomsky's academic achievements extend beyond linguistics, as he is also an active political commentator and philosopher, known for his unique perspective and profound insights. more

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“Like other organisms, humans have a certain genetic endowment (apparently varying little in the species, not a surprise considering its recent separation from other hominids). That determines what we call their nature.”

Humans Littles Certain Surprise Species Determine Separation Considering Organisms Endowment Hominids

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“I have never suggested any principled difference between the natural and social sciences.”

Social Natural Differences Social Science Principled

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“It's roughly the case that if systems become too complex to study in sufficient depth, physics hands them over to chemistry, then to biology, then experimental psychology, and finally on to history. Roughly. These are tendencies, and they tend to distinguish roughly between hard and soft sciences.”

Ifs Hard Hands Cases Study Psychology Complexes Depth Physics Tendencies Sufficient Biology Chemistry Experimental Psychology

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Plainly, children learn their language. I don't speak Swahili. And it cannot be that my language is 'an innate property of our brain.' Otherwise I would have been genetically programmed to speak (some variety of) English.”

Children Has Beens Speak Language Brain Property Variety Innate

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Some innate capacity - some part of the human genetic endowment - enters into language acquisition. That much is uncontroversial among those who believe that humans are part of the natural world. If it were not true, would be a miracle that my granddaughter reflexively identified some elements of the blooming buzzing confusion as language-related and went on to acquire capacities of the kind that you and I are now exercising, while her pet kitten (chimp, songbird, bee...), presented with exactly the same data, could not take the first step, let alone the later ones.”

“What is the nature of the genetic endowment? How does acquisition proceed? Etc. Scientists do routinely ask similar questions about the visual system, system of motor organisation, and others - including, in fact, the digestive system.”

Doe Facts Asks Scientist Including Visuals Etc Motor Acquisition Organisation Endowment Digestive System

Author:Noam Chomsky

“It's a mistake to suppose that capacities must evolve gradually. There are many known examples of sharp changes - slight genetic modification that yields substantial phenotypic effects, and much else.”

Mistake Known Effects Example Capacity Evolve Yield Modification

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The human digestive and visual systems did clearly evolve over a very long period.”

Humans Long Periods Evolve Visuals

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Anatomically modern humans are found up to 200,000 years ago; behaviourally modern humans appear very recently in evolutionary time, as far as evidence now exists, perhaps within a window of 50-100,000 years ago, a flick of an eye in evolutionary time.”

Years Humans Eye Found Modern Evidence Years Ago Window

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I did not say that language as a completed system emerged in an individual in an instant. But I cannot think of a coherent alternative to the idea that mutations take place in individuals, not communities, so that whatever rewiring of the brain yielded the apparently unique properties of language, specifically recursive generation of hierarchically structured expressions, would therefore have taken place in an individual, and only later been used among individuals who had inherited this capacity.”

Thinking Ideas Used Individual Language Community Brain Taken Generations Expression Unique Capacity Property Alternatives Instant Mutation

Author:Noam Chomsky