The debate was broadcast on 28 November 1971 at 9:30 p.m. Chomsky and Foucault were invited by the Dutch philosopher Fons Elders to discuss an age-old question: "is there such a thing as 'innate' human nature independent of our experiences and external influences?
For example, while acknowledging that it would be futile to try to accurately predict the nature of a post-revolutionary society, Chomsky maintained that it still is worthwhile to engage in the task of theory construction.
He gave, as an example of this, late 19th and early 20th century Marxism which, according to Foucault, borrowed its conception of happiness from bourgeois society.
Foucault maintained that in adopting a certain conception of human nature we risk reconstituting old power relations in a post-revolutionary society, to which Chomsky replied: "Our concept of human nature is certainly limited, partial, socially conditioned, constrained by our own character defects and the limitations of the intellectual culture in which we exist, yet at the same time it's of critical importance that we have some direction, that we know what impossible goals we're trying to achieve, if we hope to achieve some of the possible goals.
But according to Foucault, institutions such as the family, schools, universities, medicine and psychiatry all serve to maintain power in the hands of one social class and exclude the other.