Guardian Unlimited -- Chomsky is voted world's top public intellectual

He is in his 70s and first became known for his theory of transformational grammar - and now he is top of the thinkers' hit parade. Noam Chomsky, the linguistics professor who has become one of the most outspoken critics of US foreign policy, has won a poll that names him as the world's top public intellectual.

Chomsky, who was underwhelmed by the honour, beat off challenges from Umberto Eco, Richard Dawkins, Vaclav Havel and Christopher Hitchens to win the Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.

He is -- God help us all -- as was Immanuel Velikovsky, finally being exonerated as the professionals in his field finally recognize that what he was saying was the result of pure clear observation, not simply partisan polemic.

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