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LAUREATES
2008
Michael Walzer (1935)
Michael Walzer (New York, 1935) is one of the most prominent political thinkers of our time. He has published innumerable books and articles about the duties of politics, about nationality and ethnicity and about economic justice in the welfare state.
He pleads for a pluralistic vision with regard to politics and morality. His latest projects include a study on tolerance and a project about the history of Jewish political thought. Walzer studied in Cambridge and Harvard and subsequently became Full Professor at Harvard and Princeton.
At present he works at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. His most famous books include Spheres of Justice (1983), On Toleration (1997) and Just and Unjust Wars (1977). In light of recent events Just and Unjust Wars has proven more timely than ever justifying the recent Dutch edition of that book: Rechtvaardige en onrechtvaardige oorlogen: Een ethische beschouwing met historische illustraties (Atlas, 2006)
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2006
Donna Dickenson (1946)
Born in New England in 1946, Donna Dickenson obtained her BA in Political Science from Wellesley College and her MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. After leaving the United States in protest against the Vietnam War, she settled in England, where her son and daughter were born. In addition to her academic posts, she has worked in a court reform project in New York City, a futurology institute, and the main New York newsroom of the Associated Press.
Most of her career, however, has been devoted to 'second chance' education for adults who lacked the opportunity to get a university education: she spent 22 years as a lecturer and counsellor at the Open University and now holds a professorship in Medical Ethics and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London. She has also held positions as Reader, Imperial College School of Medicine, University of London, and John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham.
Dickenson has written some twenty books and sixty articles, with her wide range of publications including not only medical ethics and law but also literary biography, poetry, radio drama and a novel. Her current work centres on the important issues in ethics, law and politics about commodification of the human body and patenting of the human genome. Married to the flautist Christopher Britton, she lives in a village near Oxford.
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photo: Christopher Britton |
2004
Tzvetan Todorov (1939)
Tzvetan Todorov was born, as he puts it, at the worst time of the 20th century in communist Bulgaria: “the year that the pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was made, that (...) Stalin and Hitler shook each others hand.”. In 1963 he flees communism and settles in Paris, but totalitarian society will continue to be one of his major politcal themes. Todorov develops into an engaged intellectual and humanist, who puts personal experience at the centre of his work. He writes in an unmistakable literary and personal style about multiculturality (Nous et les Autres, 1989), about racism (Face 1a l'extrême, 1991), humanism (De onvoltooide tuin, 1998) and the totalitarian violence of communism and facism (Herinnering aan het kwaad, bekoring van het goede, 2000).
“Todorov succeeds in bringing the big normative issues of our time – totalitarianism, racism, violence, terrorism, oppression and worldestrangement, but also responsibility, citizenship, resistance, vulnerablilty an the innovative power of individual action – to our attention in a striking manner by finding his departure point within the individual life story.” (quote from the jury-report) |
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2002
Avishai Margalit (1939)
Avishai Margalit lives in Jeruzalem and works there as professor of Philosophy at Hebrew University. In recent years he has mainly been busy with political philosophy. In his thinking he, in a surprising way, uses the notion of decency as a measure for civilization/culture. He examines concrete situations where people are humiliated, and demonstrates how showing respect helps towards creating a decent society. Apart from many books (The Decent Society being one of his most significant works) and articles in various magazines, he also regularly writes for the New York Review of Books. Margalit is one of the founders and active members of Peace Now, Israels major peace-movement. In 2004 Margalit published, together with Ian Buruma the book Occidentalism. The West in the eyes of its enemies.
“In talking with Israeli Arabs and Palestinians he became convinced of the crucial significance/meaning/value of honour and humiliation in peoples lives.” (quote from the jury-report) |
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1999
Edward Said (1935 - 2003)
The Palestinian Edward Said spent his childhood in Jeruzalem and Cairo. He recieved his scientific training in America and taught as professor at the Columbia University in New York. Central theme in Said's thinking is the influence of colonialism on western thought regarding the Orient. Said has built an extensive ouevre with works on music, social sciences and politics. He gained name with his actions as politician and advisor in the Palestinian-Israeli issue.
He published, a.o. in The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, and in Al Hayat, the daily in the Arab world. Orientalism is considered to be Saids most significant boek.
“Where Spinoza stands on the threshhold of modern times, Said has already taken leave of the ethnocentric restrictions/limitations of modernism” (quote from the jury-report) |
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