Today more than ever, our complex society is in need of critical reflection. Besides important issues to be dealt with, the tidal wave of opinions we are bombarded with in the press and on social media every day, appeal to our powers of thought and reason. Moreover, a simple ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ is no longer enough: those who make a positive contribution to societal debates should also be prepared to take a critical look at their own positions. It is this critical attitude that the International Spinoza Price Foundation wishes to stimulate by organising educational and public activities celebrating its international laureates in Flanders and the Netherlands.
The International Spinoza Price Foundation has a 2-year cycle, with each cycle tackling an urgent societal topic such as ‘Future Proof Solidarity’, ‘Health, Risk and Society’ or ‘Technology’. With respect to the topic in question , an independent jury of Dutch and Flemish academics and writers choose a laureate.
The Spinozalens is awarded every other year around the 24th of November, birth date of the Dutch philosopher Baruch de Spinoza, who lends his name to the prize. The award ceremony is in The Hague, city of peace and justice. First awarded in 1999, the Spinozalens consists of a bronze Spinoza statuette and an honorarium of 10,000 euros in return for a series of public lectures in Holland and Belgium, besides the publication of a Dutch edition of one of the laureate’s books or texts by Boom Publishers.
‘Peace is not the absence of war. It is a virtue that comes from willpower and persistent hankering.’
Baruch de Spinoza, Tractatus Politicus
Why the name Spinozalens?
The Spinozalens is named after the most famous philosopher that The Netherlands has ever produced, Baruch de Spinoza. In his work, particularly in his magnum opus Ethica, Spinoza was an advocate for values such as reason and tolerance. Spinoza was not only dedicated to philosophy, but also to grounding optical lenses. Many of Spinoza’s contemporaries recognized that he was laying the foundations for a new basis for morality.
