Skip to main content

Chomsky on the education system

Comments

Paul P. Mealing said…
I've always been a fan of Chomsky's. His commentary reminds me of Russell's famous quote about education stifling all the curiosity in a child (or words to that effect).

I've worked in engineering over the last 40 years, and, from my experience, engineers are generally conservative (politically), but, if you read New Scientist, scientists are amongst the most questing of thinkers.

I agree with what he says about the 60s - we did question and challenge everything - and I still believe subsequent generations have benefited from that; even though a number of religious conservatives point to the 60s as the time when Western society's social glue (read: institutinalised marriage between heterosexuals only) was seriously challenged (Cardinal George Pel, Archbishop of Sydney, makes specific reference to this time and this effect).

Chomsky's comments go to the heart of conservatism versus liberalism. It's a struggle that will continue right through the 21st Century, and beyond.

Regards, Paul.
February 10, 2010 at 1:03 AM
Kosh3 said…
So drug dealers are critical thinkers bucking deferential acceptance of the ideology of the masses. In a trivial sense, yes - they certainly have stepped outside of what is socially accepted. In any meaningful sense? Oh come on.
February 10, 2010 at 1:26 AM
Christopher Gray said…
So while he's decrying the education system for making us unquestioningly obedient, he's also saying that we should believe his theories despite his admission that "he can't prove any of this", essentially relying on his position as a great academic authority to back his claims. My irony meter needs an upgrade.

Ever since 'Manufacturing Consent', whch was largely excellent, Chomsky has been like a man with a new hammer, where everything looks like a nail. I think he's over-stretched this position more and more until it's looking rather thin and fragile...
February 10, 2010 at 11:18 AM
Paul P. Mealing said…
I should have raised it before, but Chomsky's concern about education creating conformity and unquestioning obedience is well founded. The famous Milgram experiments performed at Yale in the 1960s are evidence for that concern.

Regards, Paul.
February 12, 2010 at 7:13 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Evil God Challenge and the "classical" theist's response

On another blog, FideCogitActio, some theists of a "classical" stripe (that's to say, like Brian Davies, Edward Feser) are criticisng the Evil God Challenge (or I suppose, trying to show how it can be met, or sidestepped). The main post includes this: In book I, chapter 39 , Aquinas argues that “there cannot be evil in God” (in Deo non potest esse malum). Atheists like Law must face the fact that, if the words are to retain any sense, “God” simply cannot be “evil”. As my comments in the thread at Feser’s blog aimed to show, despite how much he mocks “the privation theory of evil,” Law himself cannot escape its logic: his entire argument requires that the world ought to appear less evil if it is to be taken as evidence of a good God. Even though he spurns the idea that evil is a privation of good, his account of an evil world is parasitic on a good ideal; this is no surprise, though, since all evil is parasitic on good ( SCG I, 11 ). Based on the conclusions of se...
446 comments
Read more

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen...
159 comments
Read more

Sye show continues

I was sent a link to this , for those interested in the never ending saga of Sye TenBruggencate and his "proof" of the existence of God. Hit "sinner ministries' proof of the existence of god" link below or on side bar for 30+ earlier posts on this topic that I wrote during an extended interchange with him last summer (check the literally many hundreds of comments attached to these posts if you really want to get into how Sye thinks and argues). Sye's amazing intial "proof" is available here . PS. For those interested, my own "presuppositional" proof, parodying Sye's proof by his principle "the impossibility of the contrary" (which turns out to be the key to Sye's proof) is: My claim: Sye's mind is addled and his thinking unreliable because he was hit on the head by a rock. Prove this is false, Sye. Try to, and I will say - "But your "proof" presupposes your mind is not addled and you can recognise a pr...
250 comments
Read more