是否應當設立諾貝爾哲學獎？

作者：冷艷句（來自豆瓣）

鳴謝

在《是否應當設立諾貝爾哲學獎》一文中，Russell Blackford籲請設立諾貝爾哲學獎。他的理由是哲學對於人類的特殊助益：「哲學是對於那些持續使我們產生困惑、焦慮的深刻問題在理智層面的嚴肅探究，這一探究立足於理由，它的問題涉及：

上帝是否存在？

是否有來世？

我們是否具有自由意志？

什麼是好生活？

何為正義社會的本質？

哲學肩負驅逐昏聵，挑戰正統的職責。

此外，哲學甚至就其本身的基底具有反身性意識。」

但考慮到諾貝爾獎的傳統，Blackford對設立諾貝爾哲學獎的可能性並不樂觀。但他認為可以設立與之比肩的哲學類獎項。

他在文中提到了一些現有的獎項：

霍爾堡獎（Holberg Prize）

http://www.holbergprisen.no/en/holberg-prize/prize-winners

伯格魯恩獎（Berggruen Prize）

克魯格人文與社會科學終身成就獎（Kluge Prize）

http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/prize/

拉卡托斯獎（Lakatos Award）

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakatos_Award

肖克獎（Rolf Schock Prize）

http://www.rolfschockprizes.se/en-GB/1.html

尼古拉斯?雷舍爾獎（Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy）

http://www.pitt.edu/~rescher/Rescher%20Prize.htm

讓-尼科獎（Jean Nicod Prize）

http://www.institutnicod.org/seminaires-colloques/conferences-et-prix-jean-nicod/?lang=fr

希特獎（The Hiett Prize）

http://dallasinstitute.org/events/hiett-prize-in-the-humanities/

APA著作獎（APA Book Prize）

巴懷斯獎（K. Jon Barwise Prize）

京都獎（Kyoto Prize）

http://www.kyotoprize.org/en/laureates/

坦普爾頓獎（Templeton Prize）

勒波維茨獎（Lebowitz Prize）

https://apaonline.site-ym.com/?lebowitz

基拉姆獎（Killam Prizes）

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-08/blackford-should-there-be-a-nobel-prize-for-philosophy/6837526

Should there be a Nobel Prize for philosophy?

By Russell Blackford

PHOTO:Notably, there is no Nobel Prize for philosophy and tradition is likely to keep it that way.(Flickr: Adam Baker)

There s a strong case for having a Nobel Prize for philosophy, recognising the discipline s particular benefit to mankind. After all, in our age of propaganda there is surely cause to reward an emphasis on reason and clarity, writes Russell Blackford.

When Alfred Nobel, the renowned inventor of dynamite, died in 1896, he left behind a will that laid a foundation for the prestigious Nobel Prizes.

He directed most of his wealth to fund prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in a number of specified fields. Hence we have the Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature, and peace.

The prize winners for 2015 are being announced with much fanfare, and the prizes will be awarded formally in December at splendid ceremonies in Sweden and Norway. Apart from the worldwide recognition involved, each prize carries a monetary component of eight million Swedish kronor (well over 1.3 million Australian dollars).

A separate Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was created in 1968, funded by the central bank of Sweden, but many fields of learning are still not covered.

Notably, there is no Nobel Prize for philosophy, although Bertrand Russell won the Literature Prize in 1950. Albert Camus also won it (in 1957), as did Jean-Paul Sartre (in 1964), though he chose to turn it down. Camus and Sartre were, of course, largely known as creative writers.

I doubt that any philosophers begrudge creative writers the Nobel Prize for Literature, but a there s a strong case for a separate Nobel Prize for Philosophy, recognising the discipline s particular "benefit to mankind".

Philosophy is the reason-based, intellectually rigorous, investigation of deep questions that have always caused puzzlement and anxiety: Is there a god or an afterlife? Do we possess free will? What is a good life for a human being? What is the nature of a just society? Philosophy challenges obfuscation and orthodoxies, and extends into examining the foundations of inquiry itself.

Thus, it includes the sub-disciplines of epistemology (or theory of knowledge) and logic - the study of what should count as a good argument for a claim.

As with any other academic discipline, much philosophical research is specialised and technical. By necessity, this can be inaccessible to a general audience. Yet, philosophers often bring their skills to the great questions of our time, including problems of global injustice and the risks to humanity s future.

Major living philosophers such as Jürgen Habermas (in Germany), A.C. Grayling (in the UK), and Martha Nussbaum (in the United States) are prominent in public debate across a wide range of urgent issues.

All too often, that debate is dominated by tribalism, dogma and emotional manipulation. We live, as has often been said, in an age of propaganda. With its emphasis on reason and clarity, the study of philosophy provides an indispensable counterweight to this. In particular, it offers valuable training for leaders of the future.

The main barrier to a Nobel Prize for Philosophy is simply tradition: it s unlikely that the Nobel Foundation would want to extend the established fields any further, even if it received additional funding. Fair enough, I think, so what about an equivalent to a Nobel Prize for Philosophy?

Until recently, the nearest equivalent was possibly the Templeton Prize, awarded annually to an individual who "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works". Though it has sometimes been won by a philosopher (such as Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor in 2007), this prize s recipients have been a varied group. They include, for example, Mother Teresa (1973) and the Dalai Lama (2012). The Templeton Prize has a clear religious bias, whereas many philosophers treat the claims of religion with suspicion.

Over the past decade or two, there has been a growth of lucrative new prizes for high intellectual achievement. Among these, the government of Norway has introduced two prizes that can be seen as near-equivalents to Nobel Prizes in their fields. The Abel Prize, which had its first winner in 2003, is almost a Nobel Prize for Mathematics under another name. Similarly, the Holberg Prize can be seen as a Nobel Prize for scholarship in the humanities and related disciplines. It has sometimes been won by philosophers, including Habermas in 2005 and the late Ronald Dworkin in 2007.

The Holberg Prize notwithstanding, philosophy still lacks a clear equivalent to its own Nobel Prize. Most recently, however, the Berggruen Philosophy Prize has been announced for "a living thinker whose ideas have deeply influenced our world". From 2016, it will be awarded annually by the recently launched Berggruen Philosophy and Culture Center, based in Los Angeles.

The reputations of the Berggruen Center and the Berggruen Prize remain to be established, but the prize money of $US1 million makes a large symbolic statement. It rivals the monetary value of a Nobel Prize.

Perhaps the Berrgruen Prize can become, in time, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for Philosophy, as seems to be intended. That will depend on the wisdom of its judges and the quality of its future laureates.

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