“Is the world’s top public intellectual a brilliant expositor of linguistics and the US’s duplicitous foreign policy? Or a reflexive anti-American, cavalier with his sources?”
Robin Blackburn and Oliver Kamm, examine the cases for and against Chomsky in Prospect:
The huge vote for Noam Chomsky as the world’s leading “public intellectual” should be no surprise at all. Who could match him for sheer intellectual achievement and political courage?
Very few transform an entire field of enquiry, as Chomsky has done in linguistics. Chomsky’s scientific work is still controversial, but his immense achievement is not in question, as may be easily confirmed by consulting the recent Cambridge Companion to Chomsky. He didn’t only transform linguistics in the 1950s and 1960s; he has remained in the forefront of controversy and research.
More here.
Three friends and readers of 3 Quarks Daily were also on the list of winners: Richard Dawkins came in at number 3, while Daniel Dennett and Steven Pinker were numbers 24 and 26. Congratulations to them and all the others from all of us at 3QD.