Problems of mind and matter Book

Problems of Knowledge and Freedom are two long lectures Noam Chomsky gave in memory of philosopher and political activist Bertrand Russell. Fittingly, the lectures are entitled "How to Interpret the World" and "How to Change the World." The first lecture begins by discussing Russell's attempt to understand how human beings come to have knowledge, and the second lecture begins by discussing Russell's political activism relative to war and education, among others. However, both lectures wind up being a springboard for Chomsky's own interests. The first lecture comes to be about how Russell's and other philosopher's methods for investigating how human beings come to acquire knowledge is wrong and that a more fitting understanding would have to deal with the innate cognitive capacities of human beings, which is what Chomsky investigates himself. The second lecture comes to be about Chomsky's opposition to the Vietnam War and his agreement with Russell that a democratic socialism is the proper way to organize government. The book does wind up, though, being a decent introduction to Chomsky's two main intellectual pursuits, namely cognitive science and politics.