"Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship" is an essay by the American academic

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

. It was first published as part of Chomsky's ''

American Power and the New Mandarins ''American Power and the New Mandarins'' is a book by the US academic Noam Chomsky, largely written in 1968, published in 1969. It was his first political book and sets out in detail his opposition to the Vietnam War. Overview Chomsky develops t ...

''. Parts of the essay were delivered as a lecture at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in March 1968, as part of

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...

Lecture Series. The first third of the essay, "The Menace of Liberal Scholarship" by Noam Chomsky in ''The New York Review of Books'', January 2, 1969, was taken "almost verbatim" from this essay.

Content

In "Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship" Noam Chomsky argues that, during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, the liberal intelligentsia provided self-serving arguments in their discussion and analysis of the war, instead of objectively discussing the topic; that they used ideology to legitimize U.S. commitments to autocratic rule and intervention in Asia. Chomsky argues that there was no end of ideology, as many scholars opined, but rather that it was an elite ideology that all elites and scholars could agree upon. Chomsky argues that the conservative, moderate, and liberal intelligentsia all had an elite, counter-revolutionary, bias in their writing, but he focuses on the liberal scholars. As an additional example to the Vietnam War, Noam Chomsky looks at liberal scholarship which covered the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

in which the same lack of objectivity and the same counter-revolutionary subordination can be seen. The essay consists of three parts. Part I focuses on the Vietnam War and the increasing role of intellectuals, or specialists, in government and public and foreign policy. Part II focuses on the Spanish Civil War. He contrasts the liberal-communist version of the war with that of other sources including anarchists' and first-hand accounts. Part III is a conclusion.

References

External links

Publisher's website

1997 essays 1997 non-fiction books Liberalism Works about the Spanish Civil War Works about the Vietnam War Works by Noam Chomsky {{Essay-stub