My Take | Humanities and philosophy play crucial role in our world
Those who create the science and technology that’s flooding our lives are not necessarily the best people to decide how their creations should be used
Who says humanities don’t pay and philosophy is useless? In fact, they can pay a lot.
Two world-renowned educators have just won HK$30 million each – yes, you read that right – from the inaugural Yidan Prize in Hong Kong. Half of the money is for the winner and the other half for her education research or project from the prize set up by tech giant Tencent co-founder Charles Chen Yidan.
Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck is acknowledged for her work on “growth mindset”, which argues that intelligence is not fixed but can be developed.
Fellow winner Vicky Colbert is founder and director of Fundación Escuela Nueva (“New School” in Spanish) in Colombia, whose teaching model has transformed education at rural schools in the country and been adopted by more than a dozen others, having reached over five million children since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, Cambridge philosopher Onora O’Neill has won US$1 million from the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute. She is famous for applying the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant to practical ethics and social policy.