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Article: Nobel Tics.
- Article from:
- American Scholar
- Article date:
- September 22, 2000
- Author:
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Sins of Commission, Sins of Omission
The Nobel Prize is usually meted out with deliberation and fairness-but not always. Consider its inception, a century ago this December. Alfred Nobel's will specified five prizes--in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace--to be awarded to those who had contributed most materially to the benefit of mankind during the preceding year. (Economics is a nouveau prix, established in 1968 by the Central Bank of Sweden.) One can imagine the workings of Nobel's mind as he chose the categories. As the inventor of dynamite, he was rooted in the sciences, hence the science prizes. The Peace Prize would seem an ...