Re: tips digest: December 20, 2004

[Christopher D. Green]

Mike Palij wrote: I admit to finding this thread very interesting for a variety of reasons, primarily for what it says about our community and what that community sees as being "acceptable discourse". What prompted this response, however, was Christopher Green's mention that he "role-played" Chomsky. I wonder if his final words on the matter ("it had all been quite civil, if somewhat pointed at times") were really consistent with his own experience with Chomsky and his colleagues and students. [some spelling corrected in the quote from my earlier message -cdg-] Indeed it is. Although I've heard Chomsky become understandably exasperated (especially with some psychologists who sometimes seem to revel in making whole careers, sometimes whole subdiciplines, out of opposing their own misinterpretations of his position). I've never hear him be downright, unprovokedly rude in the way you've described. On the contrary, when I have written to him (unlike *any* other major academic  figure I've written to) I have received long, detailed, closely argued letters that directly address the points about which I have inquired. Part of the result can be seen in my 1997 chapter (w/ John Vervaeke), "But what have you done for us lately?: Some recent perspectives on linguistic nativism"(In D. M. Johnson & C. E. Erneling (Eds.), The future of the cognitive revolution (pp. 149-163). Oxford: Oxford University Press) By the way, neither my colleague nor I "role-played" in the sense you seem to mean. All I meant was that I took a strongly nativist position on language (probably slightly stronger than I actually believe, for the purposes of the debate) and he took on a strong "social learning" perspective (probably *not* slightly stronger than he actually believes). As for Randy Allen Harris' book, I enjoyed it and learned a great deal from it as well, but what I took away from it was that Chomsky has usually acted far more reasonably (not to mention rationally) than those who have been aligned against him. Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ============================ . --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]