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The Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture is a US$1-million award given each year to a significant individual in the field of philosophy.[1] It is awarded by the Berggruen Institute to "thinkers whose ideas have helped us find direction, wisdom, and improved self-understanding in a world being rapidly transformed by profound social, technological, political, cultural, and economic change."[2]
| Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Ideas of broad significance for shaping human self-understanding and the advancement of humanity |
| Location | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Presented by | Berggruen Institute |
| Reward(s) | US$1,000,000 |
| First awarded | 2016 |
| Last awarded | 2023 |
| Currently held by | Patricia Hill Collins (2023) |
| Website | Berggruen Institute |
The Berggruen Prize was first awarded in 2016 with the overt purpose of becoming a "Nobel prize for philosophy".[3][4] The first recipient of the Berggruen Prize was the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, whose work "urges us to see humans as constituted not only by their biology or their personal intentions, but also by their existence within language and webs of meaningful relationships."[5][6][7][8][9]
The prize is awarded annually in October, with a ceremony at the New York Public Library. In 2016, ceremony speakers included University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann and journalist Fareed Zakaria.[10] The ceremony honoring Japanese philosopher Kojin Karatani was held in Tokyo, Japan.[11] In 2024, the ceremony was held in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, with journalist Michel Martin serving as a speaker. [12] [13]
In 2024, The Berggruen Institute announced the annual Berggruen Prize Essay Competition. The competition welcomes essay submissions in English and Chinese, awarding $25,000 per language category. By delving into fundamental philosophical inquiries relevant to both the present and future, it aims to broaden the scope of our quest for fresh ideas and new paradigms during unprecedented times. This contest complements the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture which acknowledges significant lifelong contributions.[14]
| Year | Image | Laureate | Country | Citation | Fields |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | _(cropped).jpg) |
Charles Taylor (born 1931) |
 Canada |
"whose work urges us to see humans as constituted not only by their biology or their personal intentions but also by their existence within language and webs of meaningful relationships."[15] | Political philosophy, cosmopolitanism, hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, philosophical anthropology |
| 2017 | .jpg) |
Onora O'Neill (born 1941) |
 United Kingdom |
for "her works have elevated the quality of public life and improved the very vocabulary of public discourse."[16] | Political philosophy, ethics |
| 2018 | .jpg) |
Martha Nussbaum (born 1947) |
 United States |
for "her transformative work as an academic philosopher into public debates about key questions of national and global political significance, making her one of the world's leading public philosophers."[17] | Liberal theory, political philosophy, feminism, ethics, social liberalism |
| 2019 | .jpg) |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020) |
United States |
for being "a lifelong trailblazer for human rights and gender equality and a constant voice for justice, equal and accessible to all."[18] | Law, political science, feminism, liberalism, social justice |
| 2020 | .jpg) |
Paul Farmer (1959–2022) |
United States |
"leader in the development of public anthropology, as well as in improving health care for the world's poorest people."[19] | Internal medicine, infectious disease, medical anthropology |
| 2021 | .jpg) |
Peter Singer (born 1946) |
 Australia |
"for promoting the idea of 'effective altruism,' which encourages people to have reason, rather than empathy, guide their philanthropy."[20] | Applied ethics, bioethics, utilitarianism, environmental ethics, philosophy of life |
| 2022 | .jpg) |
Kojin Karatani (born 1941) |
 Japan |
for his "radically original contributions to modern philosophy, the history of philosophy, and political thinking—making Karatani’s work particularly valuable in the current era of troubled global capitalism, crisis in democratic states, and resurgent but seldom self-critical nationalism."[21] | Political philosophy, history of philosophy, deconstruction, comparative literature, literary criticism |
| 2023 |  |
Patricia Hill Collins (born 1948) |
United States |
for how her work “provides a powerful analytical lens through which we can envision the different and intersecting ways in which our material, social, and cultural worlds produce injustice,” and has given us “original vocabulary with which to think about social power and contestation.”[22] | Social theory, Sociology of knowledge, Feminism, Feminist sociology, Gender studies, Black feminism |
Current Prize Jury Members
| Image | Jury[23] | Country | Details | Entered | Other Groups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
David Chalmers (b. 1966) | Australia |
Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science, New York University |
2018 | |
 |
Antonio Damasio (b. 1944) |  Portugal United States |
Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy, University of Southern California |
2016 | Bio/Tech Futures The Berggruen Network Transformations of the Human Advisory Board |
| Yuk Hui (b. 1978) |  Hong Kong |
Professor of Philosophy, City University of Hong Kong |
2020 | TofTH Senior Fellows | |
 |
Siri Hustvedt (b. 1955) | United States |
Novelist, Poet, and Essayist; Recipient, 2019 Princess of Asturias Awards for Literature |
2021 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Pratap Bhanu Mehta (b. 1967) |  India |
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching | 2021 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Elif Shafak (b. 1971) |  Turkey United Kingdom |
Novelist, Essayist, and Activist; Recipient, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres |
2018 | Noema Magazine Editorial Board |
 |
Wang Hui (b. 1959) |  China |
Professor of Chinese Language, Literature, and History, Tsinghua University |
2016 | The Berggruen Network |
Berggruen Prize Jury Emeriti
| Image | Jury[24] | Country | Details | Entered | Withdrew | Other Groups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Kwame Anthony Appiah (b. 1954) | United Kingdom Ghana |
Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York University |
2016 | 2022 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Leszek Borysiewicz (b. 1951) | United Kingdom |
Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge | 2016 | 2020 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Amy Gutmann (b. 1949) | United States |
President of the University of Pennsylvania | 2016 | 2021 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Amartya Sen (b. 1933) | India United States |
Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University; Recipient, 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences |
2016 | 2020 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Alison Simmons (b. 1965) | United States |
Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University | 2016 | 2021 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
Michael Spence (b. 1943) | United States Canada |
Professor of Economics and Business, New York University; Recipient, 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences |
2016 | 2020 | The Berggruen Network |
 |
George Yeo (b. 1954) |  Singapore |
Former Foreign Minister of Singapore Senior Adviser to both Kuok Group and Kerry Logistics Network |
2016 | 2020 | The Berggruen Network |
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