Was für Lebewesen sind wir?

Hardcover, 248 pages

German language

Published Jan. 17, 2016 by Suhrkamp Verlag.

ISBN:
978-3-518-58694-5
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OCLC Number:
958585604

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5 stars (2 reviews)

Noam Chomsky gilt als der Begründer der modernen Linguistik und als einer der Gründerväter der Kognitionswissenschaften. Zugleich ist er einer der meistgelesenen politischen Denker der Welt. Dieses Buch ist die philosophische Summe seines Lebens: Erstmals führt er alle seine großen Themen zusammen und begibt sich auf die Suche nach dem Wesen des Menschen.

Chomsky nimmt seinen Ausgang bei der Sprache. Diese ist für ihn ein angeborener Mechanismus, der ein keineswegs zwingendes Muster aufweist und unser Denken bestimmt. Wir alle denken gemäß diesem Muster – und daher können wir auch nur das wissen, was die menschliche Sprache zu denken erlaubt. Einige Geheimisse der Natur könnten uns deshalb für immer verborgen bleiben. Zugleich eröffnet die Sprache aber eine kreative Freiheit; uns ist ein Freiheitsinstinkt gegeben, der uns gegen Herrschaft aufbegehren und eine freie Entfaltung suchen lässt. In der libertären Tradition von Wilhelm von Humboldt, John Stuart Mill und Rudolf Rocker zeichnet uns …

3 editions

reviewed What kind of creatures are we? by Noam Chomsky (Columbia Themes in Philosophy)

Review of 'What kind of creatures are we?' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It was a long and challenging read, partly because I am new to most topics of the book (linguistics, mind-body-problem), partly because it is not self-contained. For me, it was a book to work with -- googling, reading the footnotes, googling again, making notes -- and so on.

Here are some highlights of what I learned. First, what is the difference between humans and (other) animals? Our language. It allows to generate "unbounded arrays of [...] expressions" of what happens in our head. Animals may have languages, too, but are limited in what they can express, mainly because the elements of their language have a direct link to what happens outside them. The "atomic concepts" of human language, on the other hand, can be seen as linked to mental activities, "though there are of course actions of refering and denoting." To me, this distinction is quite sophisticated and makes a …

reviewed What kind of creatures are we? by Noam Chomsky (Columbia Themes in Philosophy)

Review of 'What kind of creatures are we?' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It was a long and challenging read, partly because I am new to most topics of the book (linguistics, mind-body-problem), partly because it is not self-contained. For me, it was a book to work with -- googling, reading the footnotes, googling again, making notes -- and so on.

Here are some highlights of what I learned. First, what is the difference between humans and (other) animals? Our language. It allows to generate "unbounded arrays of [...] expressions" of what happens in our head. Animals may have languages, too, but are limited in what they can express, mainly because the elements of their language have a direct link to what happens outside them. The "atomic concepts" of human language, on the other hand, can be seen as linked to mental activities, "though there are of course actions of refering and denoting." To me, this distinction is quite sophisticated and makes a …

Subjects

  • Philosophy
  • Language and languages