Nussbaum to be Honored in Italy as a “Master of Our Time”
Professor Martha C. Nussbaum will be honored on Saturday as “one of the most influential philosophers of our time” with a prestigious Italian award known as the Nonino Prize.
The Italian particle physicist Fabiola Gianotti will present the 2015 “Master of Our Time” Nonino Prize to Nussbaum at the family-run distillery in northeast Italy that has bestowed the awards since 1975. Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, is appointed to both the Law School and the Philosophy Department, and has taught at Harvard, Brown, and Oxford universities.
This year’s Nonino jury — led by V.S. Naipaul, the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in literature — praised Nussbaum as “a paladin of liberalism, laity, and civil rights, a theorist of global justice and a defender of all living creatures.”
“Her philosophical analysis is unique, maieutic, and touching, open and critical on the great enigmas of the contemporary society, like the celebration of multiculturalism, and the problems of science and technology,” the jury wrote.
The Nonino Prize was established 40 years ago to “highlight the constant relevance of rustic life” and has grown to include four categories, including an international prize and the Master of Our Time award. The other honorees this year will include Ariane Mnouchkine, a French stage director; Yves Bonnefoy, a French poet and essayist; and Roberto De Simone, an Italian musician, composer, and theater director.