Linguistics and Philosophy

"Song of the Human" made its world premiere at the Winter Garden in New York City. Discovering MIT Professor Shigeru Miyagawa’s research on birdsong was “validating and inspiring,” creator Pete Wyer says.

"Song of the Human": An origin story

New work by composer Pete M. Wyer draws inspiration from MIT linguistic scholar Shigeru Miyagawa's hypothesis on the origins of human language.

December 13, 2016

At forum, MIT community tackles tough ethical questions of climate change

Why is it so hard for human beings to address climate change? What can motivate effective action?

November 21, 2016

Top row: Sana Aiyar, Catherine Clark, Sasha Costanza-Chock. Middle row, Amy Finkelstein, Deborah Fitzgerald, Daniel Hidalgo. Bottom row: Justin Khoo, Bradford Skow, Craig Wilder

Nine SHASS faculty members awarded named professorships

Honored positions afford faculty additional support for research.

November 10, 2016

First Row: (left to right) Alberto Abadie, Isaiah Andrews, Dwaipayan Banerjee, Claire Conceison. Second Row: (left to right) Drew Fudenberg, Paul Roquet, Tamar Schapiro, Ariel White.

New faculty in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

SHASS welcomes eight new faculty members for 2016.

November 2, 2016

The creative "Stata-o'-lantern" honors MIT's iconic Stata Center.

Scene at MIT: Stata-o'-lantern

October 27, 2016

Analyzing the 2016 election: Insights from 12 MIT scholars

Experts from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences weigh in on topics from polling to rhetoric to individual campaign issues.

October 12, 2016

Norvin Richards, professor of linguistics at MIT, and the cover of his new book, “Contiguity Theory,” recently published by the MIT Press.

Sound system

In new book, Norvin Richards explores how our voices shape the rules of grammar.

September 20, 2016

QS ranks MIT the world’s top university for 2016-17

Ranked No. 1 for the fifth straight year, the Institute also places first in 12 of 42 disciplines.

September 5, 2016

In an MITx Philosophy MOOC, online learners can have their work graded and commented upon by professional philosophers.

Popular MITx philosophy MOOC introduces instructor grading

August 15, 2016

“You have to consider that art is a very real part of our lives and societies, we have art institutions, we have funding for the arts, everyone has an idea of what it is,” says Rebecca Millsop, a PhD student in philosophy.

Seeking big answers

PhD student Rebecca Millsop uses philosophy to take on contentious questions about how we define art.

July 20, 2016

A unique reflection of MIT's Building 32, the Ray and Maria Stata Center

Scene at MIT: Reflections on Stata

June 29, 2016

“Children seem to interpret disjunction like conjunction,” observes MIT Linguistics Professor Danny Fox. However, Fox adds, although “it has been claimed children are very different from adults in the interpretation of logical words,” the study’s larger implication is almost the opposite — namely that “the child is [otherwise] identical to the adult, but there is a very small paramet...

Why children confuse simple words

Study: Kids have “and/or” problem despite sophisticated reasoning.

May 23, 2016

Seven from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2016

Prestigious honor society announces 213 new members this year.

April 21, 2016

QS World University Rankings rates MIT No. 1 in 12 subjects for 2016

MIT ranked within the top 5 globally for 19 of 42 subject areas.

April 8, 2016

“Why Only Us: Language and Evolution” (MIT Press), by Robert C. Berwick (top left) and Noam Chomsky (bottom left)

Code of the humans

New book by Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick explores how people acquired unique language skills.

March 1, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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