In this episode of AUHSD Future Talks, Superintendent Matsuda interviews Professor Avram Noam Chomsky. Mr. Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 and he is one of the most cited public intellectuals of the 21st century: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. He is a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona starting in 2017 and was an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2001 to 2017. He has authored more than 150 books on topics on linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Considered to be "the father of modern linguistics", for such reasons as working on the concept of "Universal Grammar" he continues to investigate language with the concept and theory of Transformational-Generative Grammar.
He not only has written numerous books but he has engaged in philosophical debates with intellectuals and modern philosophers. Some noteworthy intellectuals and philosophers he debated were Michel Foucault, Tyler Burge, Donald Davidson, Michael Dummett, Saul Kripke, Thomas Nagel, Hilary Putnam, Willard Van Orman Quine, and John Searle. During the talk with Superintendent Matsuda, Professor Chomsky discusses his educational experience, mass public education, "banking" form of education, three existential threats that face humanity, the connection between his linguistic work and education, the way forward for young people, democracy and education, and his message to young people.
