5886 Human Nature: Justice versus Power - Noam Chomsky debates with Michel Foucault - Debate Analysis

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Stefan Molyneux

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4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture examines the influential debate between philosophers Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, focusing on themes of human nature, justice, and power. It begins with Chomsky's argument for an innate biological basis for language acquisition, exploring how humans develop complex linguistic abilities despite limited input. In contrast, Foucault challenges the very concept of human nature, questioning its definitional clarity and arguing that it serves more as a reflection of evolving knowledge than a concrete scientific truth. The discussion oscillates between their contrasting views, dissecting the relationship between language, knowledge, and cognition while critiquing the disconnect between philosophical inquiry and its relevance to society. Ultimately, the lecture calls for clearer definitions in philosophical discussions and emphasizes the responsibility of intellectuals to address the practical needs of the public they serve.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All right. This is a little project I've had on my plate for a while. I got a little bit of time today. I thought I would do it. So this is a famous debate from the 1970s between Noam Chomsky and Michelle Foucault. And human nature justice versus power. This is a debate. And these are two people who take money from the government in many ways, Michelle, a little bit more than known,
0:24.6	and they take taxpayer money, they take state privileges, and of course, in return for this,
0:32.9	you would think that they would feel a certain obligation to provide value in return, to help society in this issue.
0:49.0	So I have not listened to this. I have not read it. I'm going in blind because I'm going in from the point of view of the mindset of a general purpose layman, an intelligent layman who is looking to get value out of these heavily coddled and protected and coercively subsidized
1:13.3	intellectuals. Are you providing value to society as a whole? So to frame it, Fons Elders,
1:21.8	the moderator says, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third debate at the International
1:26.1	Philosophers Project. Tonight's debate is Michel Foucault of the Collège de France and Mr. Noam Chansky of the MIT.
1:32.8	Both philosophers have points in common and points of difference.
1:35.5	Ooh, big brain stuff.
1:36.8	He says, perhaps the best way to compare both philosophers would be to see them as tunnelists
1:40.1	through a mountain working at opposite sides of the same mountain with different tools,
1:43.6	without even knowing if they're working in each other's direction.
1:47.6	I don't know what the hell that means.
1:49.7	Perhaps the best way to compare both philosophers would be to imagine that they're
1:54.1	tunnelers.
1:54.6	What does that mean?
1:55.9	But both are doing their jobs with quite new ideas, digging as profoundly as possible
1:59.6	with an equal commitment in philosophy as in politics. Enough reasons it seems to me for us to expect a fascinating debate
2:05.9	about philosophy and about politics. I intend, therefore, not to lose any time and to start off
2:11.2	with a central perennial question, the question of human nature. All studies of man from history
2:16.1	to linguistics and psychology are faced with the
2:18.2	question of whether, in the last instance, we are the product of all kinds of external factors,
	...

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