A Syntax of Brainwaves

In this article, after explaining some fundamental linguistic terminology and summarising the main differences between the Essentialist (“Chomskyan”) approach and two other important tendencies in linguistics, I will argue that, in addition to the study of performance, neuroscience can also contribute to the development of theories of competence, on the basis of recent studies which show a relationship between abstract, “higher” linguistic structures and concrete, “lower” electrical behaviours of neurons.

Joseph Carens on the Art of Theorizing, Open Borders, and Normative Practice.

Joseph Howard Carens is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His main research has been in the areas of immigration, multiculturalism, and market equality. He has also founded the course “Approaches to Political Theory” at the University of Toronto and remains drawn to methodological questions and challenges within the discipline of political theory.