The polymath, MIT professor and social anarchist Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest and most deeply humane intellectuals of our time. Famed for his 1970s debate with Michel Foucault on human nature, he argues that the stance you take on political, economic, social or even personal issues - and that includes education - is influenced by how you conceive human nature. Makes sense.
But what exactly does it mean to be human? And are we the product of external factors or do we share a common human nature? Neuroscience's relatively mechanistic view of mental function presupposes a deterministic and biological view of human nature, one that's linked closely with modern evolutionary psychology. Scientists in these domains like to give the impression that they're close to understanding human nature. Chomsky's reflections in this recent video call this very idea into question.
Having made an enormous contribution to the direction of neuroscience through his work on language, Chomsky discusses the difficulties in understanding the ultimate nature of humans. He says that inquiry into the nature of growth and development in biological organisms needs to take three factors into account: genetic constitution, environmental effects, and laws of nature. Most domains are too reductionist to span the breadth of these perspectives (a recurrent problem in knowledge frameworks - maintaining a horizontal and vertical vista is near impossible). He says that very little is actually known about human nature, with most knowledge from history, experience, and literary explanation (which, he contends tells us we're partially plastic, but that there has to be "enormous uniformity below the surface").
In a reaction to the likes of Steven Pinker, an evolutionary psychologist (who's book The Blank Slate, I read years ago and loved), and other scientists who essentially claim to know the nature of humans, Chomsky points out that "scientists should be careful in deluding the public that they know more than they do." He also discusses Peter Kropotkin, who proposed mutual aid offered a selectional advantage (against current thinking), highlighting some of the issues in the fundamentals of evolutionary theory.
My takeaway is that intellectual humility is fundamental to human endeavor. We will never know everything. We can never know everything. We thread water at all times. To learn, we must develop the skills to fish for knowledge at any time, to inquire, to question, and to synthesise - to build a raft to stay afloat and find the next island.
R U M M A G E
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Wiki article: Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Video: Chomsky on Education (highly recommended)
Ted talk: Steven Pinker The Blank Slate
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| Check out Chomsky. You'll not regret it! |
Having made an enormous contribution to the direction of neuroscience through his work on language, Chomsky discusses the difficulties in understanding the ultimate nature of humans. He says that inquiry into the nature of growth and development in biological organisms needs to take three factors into account: genetic constitution, environmental effects, and laws of nature. Most domains are too reductionist to span the breadth of these perspectives (a recurrent problem in knowledge frameworks - maintaining a horizontal and vertical vista is near impossible). He says that very little is actually known about human nature, with most knowledge from history, experience, and literary explanation (which, he contends tells us we're partially plastic, but that there has to be "enormous uniformity below the surface").
In a reaction to the likes of Steven Pinker, an evolutionary psychologist (who's book The Blank Slate, I read years ago and loved), and other scientists who essentially claim to know the nature of humans, Chomsky points out that "scientists should be careful in deluding the public that they know more than they do." He also discusses Peter Kropotkin, who proposed mutual aid offered a selectional advantage (against current thinking), highlighting some of the issues in the fundamentals of evolutionary theory.
R U M M A G E
----------------
Wiki article: Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Video: Chomsky on Education (highly recommended)
Ted talk: Steven Pinker The Blank Slate
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