Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals

It is always difficult to summarize Chomsky's ideas and ideals. Neil Smith has made a great attempt to finish this challenging task. The five chapers of the book have covered all the important issues relating to Chomsky's theory. The first chapter explains why linguistics should belong to natural science. The second chapter is a good introduction to Chomsky's linguistic framework. The third chapter shows that Chomsky's hypothesis has a strong base of psychological reality. The fourth chapter discusses the difference between Chomksy's linguistic philosophy and those of other distinguished philosophers,such as Wittgenstein, Qyine, Putnan, and so on. The last chapter shows that Chomsky is full of sense of responsibility of the society. His appeal and decent activity to the equality of human beings. This is a helpful book for us to understand Chomsky more and eliminate the misunderstanding of him.