Re: logic makes a comeback

Russell Stewart (diamond@rt66.com)
Fri, 20 Jun 1997 13:53:31 -0600

At 02:39 PM 6/20/97 EDT, you wrote:
>Gene writes:
>
><<Please wait; my initial reaction was the same as Mr. Bell's; I'm not
>very familiar with Mr. Chomsky's work, though I know he is thought to be
>one of the premier linguists and induced some sort of paradigm shift in
>the field with a publication in the 1950s (?) Could you inform those of
>us who are ignorant of what he has accomplished?>>
>
>He was prominent in left wing circles in the sixties, speaking and writing
>against the war. I think that's what Russell was driving at, though it's
>difficult to tell because there was no elaboration.
>
>The problem is Chomsky's influence was not anything like a Martin Luther King
>or William Wilberforce.

Just because Chomsky isn't a household name doesn't mean that he hasn't
been influential.

>This question came up when Russell opined that just as much "materialist" evil
>had been corrected by materialism as Christianity had corrected Christian
>evils.

No, actually it came up when pointed out that Christians have denounced
evil behavior on the part of other Christians. I then countered by pointing
out that many materialists (like Chomsky) have been equally active in
denouncing evil behavior.

>I mean, we're talking about the entire course of history here. And his
>only answer was: "Ever heard of Noam Chomsky?" That might just as well have
>been, "Ever heard of Jane Fonda?"

Never mind that you still haven't provided a logical argument for your
original assertion...

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| Russell Stewart |
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2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.