Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order

In this wide-ranging intelligent tour de force, Noam Chomsky brings together his thoughts on topics ranging from language and human nature, to the Middle East settlement and the role of East Timor in the new world order. This is the first collection of his essays in recent years to address questions of philosophy, ethics and foreign policy, and he includes his first published remarks on political goals and visions. This book will be of great interest to both the general reader who is new to Chomsky’s work, and the long-time Chomsky fan who will discover new writing on current topics. It includes essays that describe the role of the "cognitive revolution " in linguistics and explore the way scientific questions are asked, answered and influenced by dominant ways of thinking. Whether he is looking at the relation-ship of democracy and markets in the new world order, human rights violations in East Timor, or the intellectual responsibilities of writers, Chomsky draws links between foreign policy decisions, the state of intellectual culture, the role of the media, and the potential for free and democratic societies to understand and counter the heinous acts being committed in their name.