Marli Huijer, Emeritus Endowed Professor in Public Philosophy, and Gijs van Oenen, Associate Professor in Practical Philosophy, have both been placed on the longlis for the Socratesbeker 2023. Huijer was nominated for her book De toekoms van het sterven, and Van Oenen for his book Culturele veldslagen: Filosofie van de culture wars.
De Socratesbeker
The Socratesbeker is the award for the most stimulating philosophy book of the previous year. The winner of the Socratesbeker 2022 is Jurriën Hamer with the book Waarom schurken pech hebben en helden geluk. In the coming period, the jury will deliberate on the best philosophy book of 2023.
About the Socratesbeker
Since 2002, the Stichting Maand van de Filosofie has annually awarded the Socratesbeker to the author of the most urgent, original and thought-provoking Dutch-language philosophy book published in the previous year. All books published in the previous year (Jan - Dec) are eligible for the Socratesbeker. The nominated book is written in Dutch, philosophical in nature, predominantly non-fiction and does not involve a collection.
The longlist
The longlist, consisting of 20 books, is now known. The shortlist of five books will be announced in February, after which the laureate will be announced in April.
About Huijer's De toekomst van het sterven
For thousands of years, immortality was reserved for the gods. Every human being eventually turned into a corpse.
Today, ageing experts and trans-humanists want to abolish mortality. The first step towards this is for people to be able to live in health for at least a hundred years before leaving the world quickly and painlessly.
In reality, deterioration begins shortly after we retire and then lasts for about 15 years. What does this mean for how we relate to the last phase of life? Do illness and deterioration have meaning because they prepare us for death?
Is the care burden of the last phase of life still bearable as the whole of society ages? Are there limits to the growth of longevity? Is there such a thing as the right moment to die?
In De toekomst van het sterven, Huijer examines our dealings with ageing and death, on a personal, social and political level.
This book is the seventh volume in the series 'Vital ideas for tomorrow's world'. This series deals with vital issues and topics, each time with the starting point: what do we want the world to look like tomorrow, and what do we have to do to achieve this? Previous publications include Een land van kleine buffers by Dirk Bezemer, Nederland voedselparadijs by Barbara Baarsma and Wij zijn de stad by Floor Milikowski.
About Van Oenen's Culturele veldslagen
In the culture wars, parties bombard each other's cultural stances with claims and accusations about identity, self-understanding and social divisions. Cultural Marxists, social justice warriors, alt-righters, populists and woke activists battle over privilege and disadvantage in issues such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo - sometimes with irony, sometimes with bitterness, but always from the firm conviction of a right that is linked to one's own identity. It is precisely in this firm conviction that left and right resemble each other, as in their dislike of their common enemies: liberal thinking, bourgeois normality and capitalism.
In Culturele veldslagen, Gijs van Oenen outlines the philosophical and historical backgrounds of the culture wars. He shows that they stem from innovative ideas within Marxism on the importance of culture on the one hand, and are driven by radical insights from French philosophy on language, madness and sexuality on the other. These insights, from Derrida and Foucault in particular, have had profound implications for our thinking and practice on issues such as multiculturalism, ethnicity, black consciousness, post-colonialism, gender, sexuality and heteronormativity over the past half century.
- More information
For more information about the nominations, see the website of Stichting Maand van de Filosofie.
For more information on Huijer's De toekomst van het sterven, see the website of Uitgeverij Pluim.
For more information on Van Oenen's Culturele veldslagen, see the website of Boom Filosofie.