Gauchissement apologétique, idéologie et heuristique : la part de l’ombre dans le discours Chomskyen

Abstract

In this article, a number of apparently disconnected, wild speculations which one finds scattered in Chomsky’s writings are shown to follow inevitably from the conjunction of the universal schema he offers for any acquisition of an intricate cognitive structure underdetermined by data and his rejection of the strict inductivism of empiricist epistemology. The underlying coherence and internal drive of Chomskyan discourse is thus brought to light, together with the unavoidable ideological cost of the implicit guiding principles of Chomskyan heuristic. This approach can in no way challenge the empirical validity of precise hypotheses on the specific nature of Universal Grammar in the particular case of language, and is merely intended to give food for thought to those linguists who do not insist on failing to see the wood for the trees.