linguistic or a combination of the linguistic and conceptual.
THE LIBERTARIAN, ANTI-EXPERIENTIAL BASIS
I am now in a position to initiate my argument against use of communicative competence within the field of communicative language teaching. Let me, therefore, turn to Chomsky’s ideas. Chomsky wants persons to liberate themselves from the tyranny of forces external to them. There is a clear libertarian basis to his interest. That basis inheres in his interpretation of Bertrand Russell’s views on education, Renee Descatres, on creativity, Jean Jacques Rousseau’s, as well as, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s on freedom from repressive authority. He seeks to concretise his interest by finding out what contribution the study of language can make to understanding human nature.( Chomsky, 1972, p. 6 ). He deals with this issue by utilising his views of linguistic theory and language learning to explain what he terms the property of normal language use.
I want to address myself, initially, to the libertarian basis. According to Chomsky ( 1988, pp. 3 - 155 ), the libertarian ideas of Rousseau’s were based strictly on Cartesian conceptions of body and mind. Not only did Rousseau accept that humans, who possess minds, are crucially distinct from machines and animals, he argued, also, that the properties of mind surpass mechanical determinacy. Rousseau concluded - so claims Chomsky – that any infringement on human freedom is illegitimate, and must be confronted and overcome.
Chomsky adds that the Cartesian conceptions were developed in the libertarian social theory of von Humboldt that persons have essential human rights to carry out “productive and creative work” under their own control, in solidarity with others. Further, these rights were rooted in “human essence.”
The Cartesian conception subject to the greatest exposition by Chomsky is “the creative aspect of language use.” He notes, with great approval, Descartes’ observations: the normal use of language is apparently free from control by external stimuli or internal states, is unbounded and constantly innovative. In normal use, persons do not repeat what they have heard, they produce new linguistic forms and do so infinitely.
The Chomskyan position is, doubtless, against the experiential. This is shown in his presentation of Russell’s question, “How comes it that human beings, whose contacts with the world are brief and personal and limited are able to know as much as they do know?” And in a frontal assault on the experiential, Chomsky ( 1972b, pp. 9-27 ), rejects the notion that words he understands derive their meaning from his experience.
This stance is consistent with one of his principal goals, elucidating ‘the humanistic conception’ of man’s intrinsic nature and creative potential.” In pursuing the goal, he is strongly committed to highlighting the significance of Russell’s views on liberal education.
The task of a liberal education, Bertrand Russell once wrote, is to give a sense of value to things other than domination, to help 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 splendour which some few have shown that it can achieve.
Chomsky’s embracing of individual creativeness, as well as, citizenship with liberty is an important feature of his views on systems of knowledge and beliefs which he says result from interplay of innate mechanisms, genetically
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