We have great regard for awards. They supply us with expert opinions of quality. And we are a species that believes in, has regard for, quality.
Of course it's not that we don't have an opinion; sometimes controversy is the point. We watch the Oscars with great anticipation, each of us with out own favorites having made or decisions with our own inexpert but understandable judgments. Every athletic award comes with debate.
Some awards are tougher. Who should get the Nobel Prize in Physics? There we defer to acknowledged, highly esteemed professionals. And our interest is sometimes passing and superficial, but no less respectful. Who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine last year?* But we do rely on these experts. When we are told that a number of climatologists support or reject the concept of global warming, we listen.
Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949. His contribution to Science? To Mankind? Lobotomy. He developed and championed the inhuman practice of destroying people's minds surgically for the purpose of social management. That was just not a curiosity at the time. The scientific world is just like the rest of us. The Nobel Prize legitimized the procedure in the minds of many doctors and led to a dramatic increase in the number of lobotomies performed around the world.
Oh, well.
Now there's an effort by the families of lobotomy patients to persuade the Nobel Prize committee to rescind the award given to Moniz.
(It is interesting that sports awards, where the bar is elevated gradually with time, are not rescinded. No one feels the winner of the 100 meter dash decades ago should be dismissed because modern sprinters are much faster. Context is appreciated in sports.)
*The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 was divided, one half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura "for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites" and the other half to Youyou Tu "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria".
Of course it's not that we don't have an opinion; sometimes controversy is the point. We watch the Oscars with great anticipation, each of us with out own favorites having made or decisions with our own inexpert but understandable judgments. Every athletic award comes with debate.
Some awards are tougher. Who should get the Nobel Prize in Physics? There we defer to acknowledged, highly esteemed professionals. And our interest is sometimes passing and superficial, but no less respectful. Who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine last year?* But we do rely on these experts. When we are told that a number of climatologists support or reject the concept of global warming, we listen.
Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949. His contribution to Science? To Mankind? Lobotomy. He developed and championed the inhuman practice of destroying people's minds surgically for the purpose of social management. That was just not a curiosity at the time. The scientific world is just like the rest of us. The Nobel Prize legitimized the procedure in the minds of many doctors and led to a dramatic increase in the number of lobotomies performed around the world.
Oh, well.
Now there's an effort by the families of lobotomy patients to persuade the Nobel Prize committee to rescind the award given to Moniz.
(It is interesting that sports awards, where the bar is elevated gradually with time, are not rescinded. No one feels the winner of the 100 meter dash decades ago should be dismissed because modern sprinters are much faster. Context is appreciated in sports.)
*The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 was divided, one half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura "for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites" and the other half to Youyou Tu "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria".
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