Chomsky

Descartes never explicitly discusses linguistics. We owe the very notion of "Descartes' linguistics" to the investigations of Noam Chomsky, an American philosopher of language. Chomsky infers from Descartes' direct and indirect references to language that, from Descartes' perspective, language is, firstly, innate, secondly, originates from the individual rather than society, and thirdly, is a creative, not mechanical, act. This paper, employing a descriptive-analytical method and framed as a critique, aims to clarify and analyze a specific facet of Cartesian thought. It concludes that language, as Descartes could have described it, is subjectivist, and this approach presupposes the possibility of a private language. In essence, the individual and subjective nature of language necessitates accepting a private language. However, a private language has self-destructive implications, providing grounds for serious critiques of Descartes' linguistic view (as extracted by Chomsky).