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Problems of Knowledge and Freedom: The Russell Lectures
The first work to connect Noam Chomsky’s linguistic and political thought, offering important insight into the philosophical foundations of his worldview
“A subtle and scrupulous look at some of the most interesting work done in our time on language and mind.” —George Steiner, The New York Times Book Review
Originally delivered in 1971 as the first Cambridge lectures in memory of Bertrand Russell, Problems of Knowledge and Freedom is a masterful and cogent synthesis of Noam Chomsky’s moral philosophy, linguistic analysis, and emergent political critique of America’s war in Vietnam. In the first half of this wide-ranging work, Chomsky takes up Russell’s lifelong search for the empirical principles of human understanding, in a philosophical overview referencing Hume, Wittgenstein, von Humboldt, and others. In the following half, aptly titled “On Changing the World,” Chomsky applies these concepts to the issues that would remain the focus of his increasingly political work of the period—his criticisms of the war in Southeast Asia and the Cold War ideology that supported it, of the centralization of U.S. decision-making in the Pentagon and the growing influence of multinational corporations in those circles, and of the politicization of American universities in the post–World War II years, as well as his analyses of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nixon’s foreign policy.
“A subtle and scrupulous look at some of the most interesting work done in our time on language and mind.” —George Steiner, The New York Times Book Review
Originally delivered in 1971 as the first Cambridge lectures in memory of Bertrand Russell, Problems of Knowledge and Freedom is a masterful and cogent synthesis of Noam Chomsky’s moral philosophy, linguistic analysis, and emergent political critique of America’s war in Vietnam. In the first half of this wide-ranging work, Chomsky takes up Russell’s lifelong search for the empirical principles of human understanding, in a philosophical overview referencing Hume, Wittgenstein, von Humboldt, and others. In the following half, aptly titled “On Changing the World,” Chomsky applies these concepts to the issues that would remain the focus of his increasingly political work of the period—his criticisms of the war in Southeast Asia and the Cold War ideology that supported it, of the centralization of U.S. decision-making in the Pentagon and the growing influence of multinational corporations in those circles, and of the politicization of American universities in the post–World War II years, as well as his analyses of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nixon’s foreign policy.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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677 people want to read
About the author
Noam Chomsky
975 books17.3k followersAvram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 5, 2021
The two parts are really disjointed, and frankly I wonder why they have been put together in a single book (other than they both use Russell's quotes for emphasis) ; perhaps including other chapters, encompassing more of Chomsky's intellectual works would be justified.
This book is about abstract language operations for the first 50 pages. I don't think it gave me any key for 'interpreting the world', other than insisting the obvious idea that language matters, and that language is human and not perfectly logical.
The next 50 pages are a demonstration of the horrors of the United State's war politics in Vietnam. I imagine how this lecture was important in 1971, reading in 2021 might not be very relevant unless guided with interesting parallels with contemporary US war politics.
Either way, I have never read Noam Chomsky before that, and I don't know what to think of his work after I read this book.
This book is about abstract language operations for the first 50 pages. I don't think it gave me any key for 'interpreting the world', other than insisting the obvious idea that language matters, and that language is human and not perfectly logical.
The next 50 pages are a demonstration of the horrors of the United State's war politics in Vietnam. I imagine how this lecture was important in 1971, reading in 2021 might not be very relevant unless guided with interesting parallels with contemporary US war politics.
Either way, I have never read Noam Chomsky before that, and I don't know what to think of his work after I read this book.
August 4, 2019
The Left and its role as the ‘true bearers of consciousness”. I wonder if the Right consciously sees itself as the opposite?
June 29, 2016
Problems of Knowledge and Freedom are two long lectures Noam Chomsky gave in memory of philosopher and political activist Bertrand Russell. Fittingly, the lectures are entitled "How to Interpret the World" and "How to Change the World." The first lecture begins by discussing Russell's attempt to understand how human beings come to have knowledge, and the second lecture begins by discussing Russell's political activism relative to war and education, among others. However, both lectures wind up being a springboard for Chomsky's own interests. The first lecture comes to be about how Russell's and other philosopher's methods for investigating how human beings come to acquire knowledge is wrong and that a more fitting understanding would have to deal with the innate cognitive capacities of human beings, which is what Chomsky investigates himself. The second lecture comes to be about Chomsky's opposition to the Vietnam War and his agreement with Russell that a democratic socialism is the proper way to organize government. The book does wind up, though, being a decent introduction to Chomsky's two main intellectual pursuits, namely cognitive science and politics.
January 29, 2017
"Hümanist anlayış bir çocuğa, tıpkı bir bahçıvanın bir fidana baktığı gibi, yani içsel bir doğaya sahip olan ve elverişli toprak, hava ışık sağlandığındığında hayranlık uyandırıcı bir şekilde gelişecek bir şey gibi bakar"
(...)
"Bu arada var olduğumuz dünyanın başka amaçları da var. Ama bu dünya kendi hiddetli tutkularının ateşinde yanarak yok olup gidecek ve onun küllerinden, taze bir umutla dolu, gözlerinde sabahın aydınlığı olan yeni ve genç bir dünya yeşerecek"
(...)
"Bu arada var olduğumuz dünyanın başka amaçları da var. Ama bu dünya kendi hiddetli tutkularının ateşinde yanarak yok olup gidecek ve onun küllerinden, taze bir umutla dolu, gözlerinde sabahın aydınlığı olan yeni ve genç bir dünya yeşerecek"
February 19, 2018
Although Chomsky is one of my favorite philosophers and authors, this book was really two books meshed into one. The first half is Chomsky discussing linguistics and the second half is about the Vietnam war. Both parts are very interesting and I learned some about the Vietnam’s war that I did not know, but it does kind of throw you when the subject changes half way through the book. I actually put the book down at that point and came back to finish it up days later.
Want to read
December 15, 2018A bit dense, but interesting.
September 22, 2024
El libro está claramente dividido en dos partes diferenciadas de un todo sobre el conocimiento humano, que el autor Bernard Russell dedico años a intentar resolver pero que sigue sin resolverse a día de hoy, pero cuyo trabajo incitó a Chomsky a dar una conferencia convertida en este libro.
La primera parte “Acerca de la interpretación del mundo”, nos da la clave para entender el prodigioso domino del lenguaje del que se vale el autor para dar a conocer los datos que llevan a sus conclusiones. La pregunta que Bernard Russell en particular y tantos otros en general han tratado de responder, ¿Cómo interpretan el mundo los seres humanos?, tan compleja de responder y que en el libro se dan pinceladas que cualquiera puede ampliar con diversos estudios al respecto. Los significativo es que Chomsky tiene la teoría de que la gramática es universal e innata en el ser humano y da ejemplos para demostrar esa teoría, así como cree también que otros principio innatos hacen también posible la adquisición de conocimiento y creencia como también determinan y limitan su alcance. Pero el problema radica en dar razón al sistema construido por la mente en el curso de esta interacción (de mecanismos innatos y de interacción con el entorno social y físico).
La segunda parte “Acerca de la transformación del mundo”, referida a la búsqueda de Bernard Russell de la felicidad, de hombres libres creativos que lleven a la reconstrucción social. Recordemos que el libro es de 1972, y la gran mayoría de las transformaciones que deberían haberse producido siguen como estaban entonces. Es muy interesante esta parte pues las acciones cometidas en el pasado por los Estados Unidos vemos una total coincidencia con el mundo actual, la concentración de poder, la brutal desinformación publicitaria de los gobiernos, las compañías multinacionales que dominan el poder ejecutivo, el intento de silencio a los movimientos sociales, el capitalismo bélico-militar, etc.
Libro muy condensado pero que nos lleva a buscar información adicional, y eso siempre enriquece.
La primera parte “Acerca de la interpretación del mundo”, nos da la clave para entender el prodigioso domino del lenguaje del que se vale el autor para dar a conocer los datos que llevan a sus conclusiones. La pregunta que Bernard Russell en particular y tantos otros en general han tratado de responder, ¿Cómo interpretan el mundo los seres humanos?, tan compleja de responder y que en el libro se dan pinceladas que cualquiera puede ampliar con diversos estudios al respecto. Los significativo es que Chomsky tiene la teoría de que la gramática es universal e innata en el ser humano y da ejemplos para demostrar esa teoría, así como cree también que otros principio innatos hacen también posible la adquisición de conocimiento y creencia como también determinan y limitan su alcance. Pero el problema radica en dar razón al sistema construido por la mente en el curso de esta interacción (de mecanismos innatos y de interacción con el entorno social y físico).
La segunda parte “Acerca de la transformación del mundo”, referida a la búsqueda de Bernard Russell de la felicidad, de hombres libres creativos que lleven a la reconstrucción social. Recordemos que el libro es de 1972, y la gran mayoría de las transformaciones que deberían haberse producido siguen como estaban entonces. Es muy interesante esta parte pues las acciones cometidas en el pasado por los Estados Unidos vemos una total coincidencia con el mundo actual, la concentración de poder, la brutal desinformación publicitaria de los gobiernos, las compañías multinacionales que dominan el poder ejecutivo, el intento de silencio a los movimientos sociales, el capitalismo bélico-militar, etc.
Libro muy condensado pero que nos lleva a buscar información adicional, y eso siempre enriquece.
February 19, 2024
Noam Chomsky.... You can tell from his name alone that he must be an interesting cookie.
Joking aside, his Russell Lectures were sterling. I admire Bertrand Russell. I admire Noam Chomsky. When one person I admire admires another person I admire enough to write lectures in honour of that person I am intrigued.
The first lecture was more heavily invested in linguistics than I care for, but it was thought provoking. The second lecture was very good. I believe that most of the Western public is still burying it's head in the sand concerning the true nature of the US government, as evinced in it's dealings in Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, etc. At the least, I hope it wasn't just me.
I owe a good portion of my removal of my head from the sand to Chomsky and Russell and, in case they have been given too cold of a shoulder by...I don't know, the CIA's propaganda department, I would like to compensate by saying kudos to them both.
Joking aside, his Russell Lectures were sterling. I admire Bertrand Russell. I admire Noam Chomsky. When one person I admire admires another person I admire enough to write lectures in honour of that person I am intrigued.
The first lecture was more heavily invested in linguistics than I care for, but it was thought provoking. The second lecture was very good. I believe that most of the Western public is still burying it's head in the sand concerning the true nature of the US government, as evinced in it's dealings in Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, etc. At the least, I hope it wasn't just me.
I owe a good portion of my removal of my head from the sand to Chomsky and Russell and, in case they have been given too cold of a shoulder by...I don't know, the CIA's propaganda department, I would like to compensate by saying kudos to them both.
March 22, 2020
Already almost 50 years in print, this book shows how consistently humanist and critical of hypocrisy Chomsky's thought has been.
From the introduction: "The task of a liberal education, Bertrand Russell once wrote, is 'to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help to create wise citizens of a free community, and through the combination of citizenship with liberty in individual creativeness to enable men to give to human life that splendor which some few have shown that it can achieve.'"
From the introduction: "The task of a liberal education, Bertrand Russell once wrote, is 'to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help to create wise citizens of a free community, and through the combination of citizenship with liberty in individual creativeness to enable men to give to human life that splendor which some few have shown that it can achieve.'"
August 15, 2017
Interesante.
July 27, 2020
It’s quite hard to get into Chomsky’s language lectures sometimes but the second half of this book is quite indispensable when it comes to his views on US foreign policy.
March 24, 2021
Repetitive and not recommend as a first choice for Chomsky readers. I wish I had read On Anarchism first.
It was a quick read though.
It was a quick read though.
April 26, 2021
The second essay, On Changing the World, is the better of the two.
December 11, 2023
Very good essays, the second one about the struggle of a democratic socialism was particularly insightful, as well as the sections on the imperialist war in vietnam
January 5, 2024
Review?
August 7, 2018
I really like Chomsky, I think many of his theories and opinions regarding linguistics are fascinating, I also think that Chomsky is a succinct and important political intellectual and I agree with a lot of the ideas he brings up in this book. More than that I am also a big fan of Russell and I think his legacy is of huge importance. You can thus imagine my excitement when I realized that all of these elements were brought together in this book called "Problems of Knowledge and Freedom"
My main issue with this book is that I'm not quite sure who this book is directed toward. I mean as I previously said I am a big fan of the subjects (philosophy, linguistics, politics), the author and Russell himself but I felt like I wasn't really engaged during the majority of the book. In both parts of the book, I felt like Chomsky used Russell as a platform to propagate many of his own thoughts and viewpoints with little regard to how this actually related to Russell. About 3/4 into the book I found myself really engaged when Chomsky discussed his and Russell's dream of a liberal socialist utopia, in this chapter Chomsky ran his discourse alongside what Russell's writing and I found this interaction immensely capturing. If this was the case throughout the entire book I could easily see this being a great read, but I unfortunately, left this book with a mellow feeling of "this could have been much better".
My main issue with this book is that I'm not quite sure who this book is directed toward. I mean as I previously said I am a big fan of the subjects (philosophy, linguistics, politics), the author and Russell himself but I felt like I wasn't really engaged during the majority of the book. In both parts of the book, I felt like Chomsky used Russell as a platform to propagate many of his own thoughts and viewpoints with little regard to how this actually related to Russell. About 3/4 into the book I found myself really engaged when Chomsky discussed his and Russell's dream of a liberal socialist utopia, in this chapter Chomsky ran his discourse alongside what Russell's writing and I found this interaction immensely capturing. If this was the case throughout the entire book I could easily see this being a great read, but I unfortunately, left this book with a mellow feeling of "this could have been much better".
March 10, 2016
Many points Chomsky drew open my mind to new ideas, especially his comments on freedom, goverment, corporation and VietNam War.
Favorite quotes:
- As the physicists are busing engineering the world of annihilation, the social scientists can be entrusted with a smaller mission of engineering the world of consent.
- Argue as much as you like, whatever you like, but, OBEY!
Russell often expressed this:
- Man's true life consisted in art and love and the creation and contemplation of beauty and in the scientific understanding of the world. If this is the true glory of man, then it is the intrinsic principle of mind that should be the object of our awe and if possible our inquiry.
- Education should not aim at a passive awareness of dead facts but at an activity directed towards the world that our efforts are to create.
Favorite quotes:
- As the physicists are busing engineering the world of annihilation, the social scientists can be entrusted with a smaller mission of engineering the world of consent.
- Argue as much as you like, whatever you like, but, OBEY!
Russell often expressed this:
- Man's true life consisted in art and love and the creation and contemplation of beauty and in the scientific understanding of the world. If this is the true glory of man, then it is the intrinsic principle of mind that should be the object of our awe and if possible our inquiry.
- Education should not aim at a passive awareness of dead facts but at an activity directed towards the world that our efforts are to create.
Read
December 23, 2022While a good look into Chomsky’s views in 1971 on science and US imperialism in Vietnam, there is not much I found useful in this book as a 21st century libertarian socialist. It is somewhat interesting, though, to see the similarities between Chomsky and Bertrand Russell, both titans in their fields and devout socialists. The most important part, for me, was the section from pages 53 to 66 where he discusses Russell’s view on socialism and anarchism and the central rolls of freedom and democracy in socialism. This is not enough to make the entire book worth reading, but it has made me interested in reading the works of Bertrand Russell, and I would recommend others with interests similar to mine do that instead of reading this book.
July 15, 2008
Noam Chomsky discorre sobre os ideais de humanismo de Bertrand Russel através de estudos e digressões de lingüística e política, em particular as incursões americanas na Indochina e no Vietnan.
As palestras de 1971 são do início de uma carreira que viria a ser brilhante e prenúncio da oposiçao de Noam ao chamado modo americano de ver o mundo, com todas suas interferências "humanitárias". Embora seja um ótimo começo na obra de Chomsk, existem livros de produção mais recente com um pensamento já mais maduro, fortemente ligado a conceitos de liberalismo e anarquismo.
Leitura rápida, porém não essencial para conhecer melhor Noam Chomsk.
As palestras de 1971 são do início de uma carreira que viria a ser brilhante e prenúncio da oposiçao de Noam ao chamado modo americano de ver o mundo, com todas suas interferências "humanitárias". Embora seja um ótimo começo na obra de Chomsk, existem livros de produção mais recente com um pensamento já mais maduro, fortemente ligado a conceitos de liberalismo e anarquismo.
Leitura rápida, porém não essencial para conhecer melhor Noam Chomsk.
November 29, 2008
It contains two lectures given by Noam Chomsky - one on linguistics, that is hard for a non-linguist such as myself to follow. The other one has to do with the US invasion and destruction of Vietnam. I read it a long time ago and rememebr it vaguely at best, but it was part of my political awakening - and it draws a direct line between Chomsky and Bertrand Russell (another hero).
June 29, 2012
These two lectures really don't go at all together, other than the fact that they are both about russell, they just don't really go together.
Also the lectures themselves were not very good and didn't amount to much in the end. I was really disappointed.
Also the lectures themselves were not very good and didn't amount to much in the end. I was really disappointed.
March 22, 2009
This is the book I got Chomsky to sign in Florida. His most concrete political analysis about a potential future society.
August 16, 2009
I especially liked the first part about knowledge.
January 9, 2016
Exceptional, thought-provoking ideas from a man that truly has no equals in contemporary philosophy.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews