The “scientific subject” in A. Badiou’s philosophical system: The case of Chomskyan biolinguistics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2016.3.26228Keywords:
ontology, subjectivity, genericity, language, structure.Abstract
In this essay, we argue that Noam Chomsky’s biolinguistic program contains an underlying ontology, the implication of which involves a radical transformation of the notion of subject/Self and the category of identity upon which it is supported, as well as the Kuhnian postulates of normal science. Indeed, one of the challenges of a structuralist ontology, in relation to which Chomsky is personally remote albeit formally proximate, is to transpose the theses of the real in relation to the question of being and event to that of a realism, the field of which organizes the creation of a differential and generic subject by means of generating elementary syntactic structures that are mapped onto word-strings. As such, linguistic capacity joins in the production and creation of identity. We argue that the biolinguistic program is still revolutionary insofar as it has triggered as well as perpetuated a new figure of subject in the sciences, that is, a revolutionary figure of science in relation to which a fundamental ontology is adequate only insofar as being based on multiplicity, such as Alain Badiou has articulated.
Downloads
References
ANTONY, L. B.; HORNSTEIN, N. Chomsky and his Critics. New York: Routledge, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470690024
ARISTÓTELES. Metafísica. Org. G. Reale. Trad. M. Perini. São Paulo: Loyola, 2002.
BADIOU, A. L’Être et l’événement. Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 1988.
______. Manifeste pour la philosophie. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1989.
______. "Y a-t-il une théorie du sujet chez Canguilhem”. In: L’Aventure de la philosophie française: depuis les années 1960. Paris: La Fabrique, 2012.
BERWICK, R.; CHOMSKY, N. “Foreword”. In: BOLHUIS, J.; EVERAERT, M. Birdsong, Speech and Language: Exploring the Evolution of Mind and Brain. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2013. pp. ix-xii.
______. Why Only Us: Language and Evolution. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2016.
BERWICK, R.; CHOMSKY, N.; PIATTELLI-PALMARINI, M. “Poverty of the stimulus Stands: Why recent Challenges Fail”. In: PIATTELLI-PALMARINI, M.; BERWICK, R. (eds.). Rich Languages from Poor Inputs. London: Oxford University Press, 2015. p. 19-42.
BOECKX, Cedric. “Some Reflections on Darwin’s Problem in the Context of Cartesian Biolinguistics”. In: BOECKX, C.; SCULLY, A.-M. The Biolinguistic Enterprise. New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty. London: Oxford University Press, 2011. p. 42-64.
BOECKX, C. “Some Thoughts on Biolinguistics”. In: Veritas, 60, 2 (2015), p. 207-221. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2015.2.22006
BOECKX, C.; SCULLY, A.-M. (eds.). The Biolinguistic Enterprise. New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty. London: Oxford University Press, 2011.
CANGUILHEM, G. Le concept et la vie. In: Revue Philosophique de Louvain, troisième série, 64, 82 (1966), p. 193-223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/phlou.1966.5347
______. Études d’histoire et de philosophie de la science. Paris: Librairie J. Vrin, 1968.
______. Vital Rationalist: Selected Writings from Georges Canguilhem. Edited by François Delaporte and translated by Arthur Goldhammer. New York: Zone Books, 1994.
CHOMSKY, N. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton, 1957. (2nd ed., 2002). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112316009
______. Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988.
______. The Minimalist Project. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.
______. Perspectives on Power. Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order. Montréal: Black Rose Books, 1997.
______. “The Mysteries of Natures”. The Journal of Philosophy, CVI, 4 (Apr. 2009), p. 167-200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/jphil2009106416
______. “Three Factors in Language Design”. In: Linguistic Inquiry, 36, 1 (Winter, 2005), p. 1-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/0024389052993655
______. Sobre natureza e linguagem. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2006.
______. The Science of Language. Interviews with James MacGilvray. Edited by N. Chomsky and J. MacGilvray. London: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
______. “What Kind of Creatures are We?: i. What is Language? ii. What Can we Understand? iii. What is Common Good?” In: The Journal of Philosophy, CX, 12 (Dec. 2013), p. 645-700.
CHOMSKY, N.; BERWICK, R. “The Biolinguistic Program: The Current State of its Development”. In: The Biolinguistic Enterprise. New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty. Edited by Anna Maria di Sciullo and Cedric Boeckx. London: Oxford University Press, 2011.
CHOMSKY, N.; HAUSER, M.; FITCH, T. W. Appendix. The Minimalist Program. Supplement (online) to Fitch, Hauser and Chomsky’s (2005) reply to Jackendoff and Pinker. (2004).
DEHAENE, S. La bosse des maths. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2010.
______. Le Code de la conscience. Paris: Odile Jacob/Sciences, 2014.
DE LANDA, M. A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History. New York: Swerve Books, 2000.
FITCH, W. T.; HAUSER, M.; CHOMSKY, N. “The Evolution of the Language Faculty: Clarifications and Implications”, In: Cognition, 97 (2005), p. 179-210. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.02.005
FOUCAULT, M. Les Mots et les Choses. Une arquéologie des sciences humaines. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.
______. L’ Archéologie du savoir. Paris: Gallimard, 1969.
FREGE, G. Les fondements de l’arithmétique. Trad. par C. Imbert. Paris: Le Seuil/L’ordre philosophique, 1969.
______. (1919). Recherches logiques: La Pensée. In: Écrits logiques et philosophiques. Trad. Claude Imbert. Paris: Points/Essais, 1971.
HALLWARD P.; PENDEN, K. (ed.). Concept and Form. 2 v. New York: Verso, 2012.
HAUSER, M.; CHOMSKY, N.; FITCH, T. “The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did it Evolve?”. Science, 298, issue 5598 (2002), p. 1569-1579. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.298.5598.1569
JACKENDOFF, R. Foundations of Language. Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution. London: Oxford University Press, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198270126.001.0001
______. A User’s Guide to Thought and Meaning. London: Oxford University Press, 2012.
KUHN, T. The Road since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970-1993, with an autobiographical interview. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
LASNIK, Howard (with Marcela Depiante and Arthur Stepanov). Syntactic Structures Revisited: Contemporary Lectures on Classic Transformational Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6592.001.0001
LENNEBERG, Eric H. Biological foundations of language. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1967. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21548331.1967.11707799
MAMPE, Birgit; FRIEDERICI, Angela D.; WERMKE, Anne Christophe; WERMKE, Kristine. Newborns’ cry melody is shaped by their native language. Current Biology, 19, 23 (2009), p. 1994-1997. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.064
PÄÄBO, S. Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genome. New York: Basic Books, 2014.
PETITTO, Laura Anne. “How the brain begets language”. In: The Chomsky Reader. Ed. James McGilvray. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. p. 85-101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521780136.005
PIATTELLI-PALMARINI, M.; URIAGEREKA, J. “A Geneticist’s Dream, a Linguist’s Nightmare: The Case of FOXP2”. In: BOECKX, C.; SCULLY, A.-M. The Biolinguistic Enterprise. New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty. London: Oxford University Press, 2011. p. 100-125.
PINKER, S.; JACKENDORFF, R. “The Faculty of Language: What’s Special about it?”. In: Cognition, 95 (2005), p. 201-236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2004.08.004
PUTNAM, H. The Many Faces of Realism. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court Press, 1987.
RORTY, R. Philosophy and the Mirror of Natures. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.
TAYLOR, C, The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674970250
VAN FRASSEN, B. “The Transcendence of the Ego: the non-Existent Knight”. In: Ratio (new series), XVII, 4 (Dec. 2004), p. 453-477. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9329.2004.00265.x
______. “Structuralism(s) About Science: Some Common Problems”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, LXXXI (2007), p. 45-61.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright
The submission of originals to Revista Veritas implies the transfer by the authors of the right for publication. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication. If the authors wish to include the same data into another publication, they must cite Revista Veritas as the site of original publication.
Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise specified, material published in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which allows unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is correctly cited. Copyright: © 2006-2020 EDIPUCRS</p
