A powerful idea is like a stone hitting the water, expanding and rippling wide.
The Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture is a $1 million award given annually to honor a thinker whose body of work has led us to find wisdom, direction, and improved self-understanding in a world being rapidly transformed by profound social, technological, political, cultural, and economic change.
The Prize seeks to place philosophical thought of the highest caliber on center stage of the public discourse and to amplify its significance to society. It is in learning from the ideas and values of various cultures that we can most meaningfully expand our worldview and inform the advancement of humanity. Inspired by this guiding ethos, the Prize aspires to celebrate individuals and achievements that cross disciplines, ideologies, and geographies.
The Berggruen Prize is unique among the greatest prizes in the world for shining a spotlight on the most profound ideas that will make a positive difference to humankind.
The Berggruen Prize Laureate is chosen from nominees spanning diverse fields of research and practice, including internationally recognized philosophers, economists, authors, and Nobel Prize laureates. The Prize has been proudly awarded to an eclectic group of world-class scholars, thinkers, and practitioners for their remarkable lifetime achievements.
The Berggruen Prize Essay Competition serves as a complementary endeavor to the Berggruen Prize. While the Berggruen Prize honors individuals whose ideas have translated to widespread and significant impact, the Essay Competition aims to provoke and recognize new, original thinking.
The Prize tries to celebrate reason that doesn’t have any frontiers, that’s not community-based or national in the narrow sense, but that could be celebrated across the world and which would change the nature of the global world in which we live, increasingly interdependent, increasingly critical of the past, and yet uncertain of the future.
2021 Berggruen Prize Laureate Peter Singer led a conversation about utilitarianism and its misunderstandings at Berggruen Institute China on October 11, 2024, in Beijing, China.
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2023 Berggruen Prize Laureate Dr. Patricia Hill Collins in conversation with Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Cord Jefferson at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on September 14, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA.
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2023 Berggruen Prize Laureate Dr. Patricia Hill Collins interviewed by Emmy-winning journalist and host of NPR’s Morning Edition, Michel Martin, at the Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Read more at TIME
Members of the Berggruen Institute Board of Directors, Berggruen Prize Jury, and leadership team together with 2023 Berggruen Prize Laureate Dr. Patricia Hill Collins and Michel Martin at the Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony on June 6, 2024, in Washington, DC. Pictured here (Back L-R): Craig Calhoun, David Chalmers, Wang Hui, Dr. Patricia Hill Collins, Siri Hustvedt, Nils Gilman, Michel Martin; (Front L-R): Katherine Miller, Nicolas Berggruen, Dawn Nakagawa, Olivier Berggruen.
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The Berggruen Institute and the American Philosophical Association co-presented the Berggruen Prize Lecture at the 97th Pacific Division Meeting given by Prize Jury Chair Emeritus Kwame Anthony Appiah on the topic, “What Is Racism?” on March 20, 2024, in Portland, OR. Pictured here (L-R): Nicole Grunwald Silver, Kwame Anthony Appiah, David Chalmers, Amy Ferrer
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2022 Berggruen Prize Laureate Kojin Karatani accepts the Berggruen Prize at the International House of Japan on April 27, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan.
Read more at The New York Times
Founder and Chairman Nicolas Berggruen together with 2022 Berggruen Prize Laureate Kojin Karatani at the Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony on April 27, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan.
Read more at The Asahi Shimbun
2021 Berggruen Prize Laureate Peter Singer in conversation with Nuala McGovern of BBC at the Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony on May 4, 2022, in Beverly Hills, CA.
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The Berggruen Institute 10-Year Anniversary and 2021 Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony held at the Beverly Estate on May 4, 2022, in Beverly Hills, CA.
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(L-R) Guests Gavin Newsom, Eric Garcetti, and Zev Yaroslavsky attend the Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony and Berggruen Institute 10-Year Anniversary at the Beverly Estate on May 4, 2022, in Beverly Hills, CA.
Founder and Chairman Nicolas Berggruen announces Peter Singer as the 2021 Berggruen Prize Laureate at the newly opened Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice, Italy, the headquarters of Berggruen Institute Europe.
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2020 Berggruen Prize Laureate Dr. Paul Farmer interviewed by Razia Iqbal of BBC on May 18, 2021, in Miami, FL.
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Founder and Chairman Nicolas Berggruen presents Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the 2019 Berggruen Prize.
Read more at The New York Times
The Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony held at the New York Public Library on December, 17, 2019.
Read more at USA TODAY
(L-R) Berggruen Institute Board of Directors Arianna Huffington, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Evan Spiegel, and guest Karlie Kloss attend the 2019 Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony.
Read more at Town & Country
2018 Berggruen Prize Laureate Martha C. Nussbaum interviewed by Razia Iqbal of BBC on December 10, 2018, in New York, NY.
Read more at The New York Times
2017 Berggruen Prize Laureate Onora O’Neill interviewed by Fareed Zakaria of CNN on December 14, 2017, in New York, NY.
Read more at Vanity Fair
Founder and Chairman Nicolas Berggruen together with Cai Guo-Qiang, the renowned Chinese artist who also designed the Berggruen Prize Trophy, at the 2017 Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony on December 14, 2017, in New York, NY.
Inaugural Berggruen Prize Laureate Charles Taylor interviewed by Fareed Zakaria of CNN at the first Berggruen Prize Award Ceremony on December 1, 2016, in New York, NY.
Read more at The New York Times
The inaugural Berggruen Prize Jury meets in New York City in 2016 to select its first Prize Laureate. Front (L-R): Antonio Damasio, Amy Gutmann, Michael Spence. Back (L-R): Leszek Borysiewicz, Alison Simmons, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Amartya Sen, Wang Hui.
Latest Prize News
In Conversation with Peter Singer | Utilitarianism: Avoiding Common Misunderstandings and Responding to Objections
American Fiction: Cord Jefferson and Dr. Patricia Hill Collins
Berggruen Prize Jury Welcomes Physicist Carlo Rovelli
Dr. Patricia Hill Collins Awarded Berggruen Prize at Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Financial Times: Nicolas Berggruen, the Modern day Medici
Kwame Anthony Appiah Delivers Berggruen Prize Lecture at the APA’s 97th Pacific Division Meeting
El País: Patricia Hill Collins, sociologist: ‘Intellectuals have done a good job of saying the world is awful, and young people are dispirited’
BBC Thinking Allowed: Patricia Hill Collins
TIME: The Winner of a $1 Million Philosophy Prize Sees a Silver Lining to Ideas Getting Attacked
$1 Million Berggruen Philosophy Prize Awarded to Patricia Hill Collins
Annual Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Awarded to Japanese Philosopher Kojin Karatani
Berggruen Prize Announces Antonio Damasio as Chair of Jury
Inaugurating Our First European Center of Activity
Annual Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Awarded to Dr. Paul Farmer for Advancements in Global Public Health Equity
Annual Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Awarded to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Her Work in Pioneering Gender Equality and Strengthening the Rule of Law
$1 Million Annual Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture Awarded to Public Philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum
Elif Shafak and David Chalmers to Join Berggruen Prize Jury
$1 Million Annual Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture Awarded to Citizen Philosopher Onora O’Neill
Charles Taylor Awarded Inaugural Berggruen Prize in New York City
