HRH Crown Prince Haakon presented the NOK 4.5 million Holberg Prize to Professor Shmuel N. Eisenstadt at a ceremony in the Håkonshallen in Bergen on Wednesday 29 November.
12/7/2006 :: - I feel greatly honored by this distinction, to be following in the steps of Julia Kristeva and Jürgen Habermas and being allowed to participate in this way in the great endeavour of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fund to reestablish the place of the arts and of humanities, social sciences, law and theology – as a basic component in the contemporary intellectual discourse, said Shmuel N. Eisenstadt in his speech of thanks.
Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt, professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, has been making important contributions to social theory for more than 50 years. He combines sociological theory with historical and empirical research in his studies of modernity and civilisations. Professor Eisenstadt is known as a builder of bridges between academic disciplines.
The Holberg Prize is awarded in memory of Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), and was first awarded in 2003. Holberg was born in Bergen, and later held the chairs of Metaphysics and Logic, Latin Rhetoric and History at the University of Copenhagen. He was a key figure in bringing the Enlightenment to the Nordic countries.
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs