Those following the recent McGinn-Honderich review kerfuffle might be interested to read Chomsky’s reticient but nonetheless combative contribution to a symposium on Margaret Boden’s Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science – see an earlier review by Harman.
It begins . . .
When I was asked to join a symposium on Margaret Boden’s history of cognitive science, I demurred, explaining that I felt it was inappropriate, given the role assigned to me in her saga. After several requests, I agreed, but with the same reservations. I’ll therefore keep to my assigned role as the demon who almost destroyed the field, though fortunately it was saved, just in time, by a few courageous souls who escaped my iron grip and were able to “trounce” my own failed efforts, and even to “eclipse” all of linguistics, rescuing cognitive science from disaster.
