The metaphysical and aesthetic implications of Chomsky’s linguistic theories: possible directions
MURALI SIVARAMAKRISHNANAbstract. Perhaps hard-core Chomskeyeans would immediately take offence at the very outset with my claims to explore the metaphysical and aesthetic implications in Chomsky’s theorizing in consideration of Chomsky’s own disinclination towards such thinking. However, it is my belief that Chomsky’s linguistic theorizing which explores human mind and its possibilities for acquiring, using, and manipulating language, does proffer scope for extending his readings into how we know what we know and how we are also able to formulate an object in terms of its aesthetic qualities or functional equivalence, which made me attempt such an inter-reading. To believe Albert Camus, what one constantly disavows one certainly has a profound inclination toward. Hence this exercise in extending the core thought of someone so profoundly international and so extremely individualistic like Chomsky, into fields as far remote as metaphysics and the aesthetic. Of course Chomsky himself has been so diverse in his thinking and responses: his interventions in fields like politics, media, and international relations have been certainly intense as well as timely
Key words: Chomsky; I-language; metaphysics; aesthetic; objets d’art; unification problem
Murali S (2025) The metaphysical and aesthetic implications of Chomsky’s linguistic theories: possible directions. Creativity 8(1): 567–581. doi:10.22381/C8120253
