[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 161 (Friday, November 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E2273]]


 THE JOHN W. KLUGE PRIZE FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN THE HUMAN SCIENCES

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                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 7, 2003

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, this week, the first inaugural John W. Kluge 
Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences was awarded in a 
ceremony at the Library of Congress. The Kluge Prize is given for 
lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences, areas of 
scholarship for which there are no Nobel Prizes.
  Mr. Kluge and the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington deserve 
our congratulations for conceiving, developing and funding this prize. 
It will provide recognition for the influence the humanities have on 
human welfare. The first recipient of the million-dollar Kluge Prize is 
Leszek Kolakowski, whose achievements as a philosopher, historian and 
essayist have influenced and affected the course of European history 
within his lifetime. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington 
recognized Kolakowski for not only his accomplishments but ``the 
trajectory of a scholarly lifetime,'' evidencing growth in both 
intellectual range and maturity over more than half a century. The 
selection process included consideration of the wide range of 
nominations by a worldwide Scholars Council established for the 
purpose. Professor Kilakowski, sometimes described as the philosopher 
of the Solidarity Movement, is a worthy choice for the first Kluge 
Prize because it truly shows the constructive power of thought.
  Professor Kolakowski, who currently lives in Oxford, England, was 
born in Radom, Poland, in 1927. He was educated at Lodz University 
(1945-50) and Warsaw University, where he received his doctorate in 
1953, staying on to become Chairman of the Section of History of 
Philosophy at Warsaw. He concurrently worked in the Institute of 
Philosophy of the Polish Academy of Sciences and as editor-in-chief of 
the main philosophical journal in Poland. Having been expelled for 
political reasons from his university post by the Polish government in 
March 1968, he held a series of professorships of Philosophy abroad: 
McGill University, Montreal (1968-69), the University of California, 
Berkeley (1969-70), and Yale University (1974). From 1981 to 1994 he 
was Professor on the Committee of Social Thought at the University of 
Chicago. He was also a Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, 
Oxford, from 1970 until his retirement in 1995. During the years, he 
has been widely honored and received the German Booksellers Peace Prize 
(1977), the Erasmus Prize (1980), the Veillon Foundation European Prize 
for the Essay (1980), the Jefferson Award (1986), the MacArthur Award 
(1982), the University of Chicago Laing Award (1990), and Tocqueville 
Prize (1994).
  He has written more than 30 books and 400 other writings on a wide 
range of subjects in four languages, primarily focused on the history 
of philosophy and the philosophy of religion. His best known and most 
influential work is the three-volume Main Currents of Marxism: Its 
Rise, Growth and Dissolution (1976-78). Written in exile from Poland, 
it was, and remains, the most lucid and comprehensive history of the 
origins, structure and posthumous development of the system of thought 
that had the greatest impact on the 20th century. Prof. Kolakowski's 
ideas informed the anti-totalitarian youth movement inside Poland, and 
he became an adviser and active supporter-in-exile of the Solidarity 
movement that challenged and began unraveling, in a non-violent way, 
the Soviet system in Eastern Europe. As one of the leaders of 
Solidarity put it:
       This skeptical student of enlightenment thought, this 
     scholar of the highest intellectual rigor, this opponent of 
     all illusions, played the most romantic and Promethean of 
     roles. He was the awakener of human hopes.

  In other words, this man demonstrated that philosophical thought and 
the study of history can lead to world-changing action, as Dr. 
Kolakowski's work helped to change the world though the Solidarity 
Movement. The word academic sometimes is used to mean ``without 
practical or useful significance.'', For Leszek Kolakowski academic 
research is not academic.
  Dr. Billington began soliciting nominations for the first Kluge Prize 
over two years ago, but he first developed the idea in the late 1970's 
while serving as Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center 
for Scholars. Dr. Billington obtained congressional authorization for a 
Nobel-type prize in the field of social and political thought, to honor 
the late Senator Hubert Humphrey, founding chairman of the Wilson 
Center Board. The prize was never funded, but Dr. Billington brought 
the idea with him when he came to the Library of Congress in 1987. 
Endowed by Library benefactor John W. Kluge, this prize will reward 
lifetime achievement in the wide range of disciplines not covered by 
the Nobel prizes. Such disciplines include history, philosophy, 
politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and 
humanities, and linguistics. The award is at the financial level of the 
Nobel awards. The prize is international; the recipient may be of any 
nationality, writing in any language.
  Dr. Billington believes it is important and appropriate to award the 
prize at the Library of Congress, in the nation's capital, in 
recognition of America's long tradition of devoting energy and 
resources into the serious and ranging study of the human sciences--
more than any other nation over the last century. The international 
nature of the prize reflects America's role as a world civilization 
whose thinkers and ideas trace their origins to all corners of the 
world. Please join me in congratulating Leszek Kolakowski on this 
important award and thank him for his contribution to the world we live 
in.

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