Search

The metaphysical assumption that nature is perfect has been groundwork for modern physics since the seventeenth century. Due to the success of that discipline, researchers from other fields of study followed its principles, including the idea of nature being perfect. Noam Chomsky's Generative Grammar was a particularly interesting case of such epistemological transposition, which took place in the twentieth century, mainly in his Minimalist Program. In his work, while taking to ultimate levels what he dubbed "the Galilean intuition that 'nature is perfect'", Chomsky proposes language as well is perfect. However, given that in Generativism language is also seen as a biological system, conjecture on its perfection results in a highly unlike assertion that it is unique from a biological point of view, because biological systems are characteristically imperfect since they are results of evolutionary accidents. Built on such almost paradoxical situation reached in Chomsky's minimalism, this article discusses the limits to emulating physics in other fields of study, more specifically in biology and cognitive sciences, among which stands linguistics. As a result of this investigation, this work questions the very metaphysical assumption that nature is perfect, along with ideas from contemporary thinkers such as physicist Marcelo Gleiser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]