The Controversial History of The Nobel Prize - Prof. Robert Marc Friedman - #62

I, I confess as far as Alfred Nobel's biography, I have, uh, there's been a, a number of more re- relatively more recent books.

I've heard exactly the same, uh, m-mythology.

I really cannot say whether it's, uh, the truth.

He, he-- I'm sure he also has inspiration that the other, uh, fabulously wealthy, uh, capitalists, [chuckles] uh, uh, in the late 19th century to, uh, uh, clear their names and have a, a much more pleasant legacy, uh, gave huge fortunes for, uh, uh, humanitarian and, uh, re-research, uh, purposes, whether Carnegie, uh, Rockefeller, uh, and, and, and so- and so forth.

Uh, there's also, of course, the, the, the story why there's no prize for, for mathematics and so forth and so on.

I, I confess I, I focus primarily on the, um, from the testament when it becomes public, uh, uh, onwards.

And, um, uh, I, I will say one thing, we know that he lived for rather, um, rather modestly for somebody with such extreme wealth.

And an important part of the, uh, Nobel story and why so successful is the-- when his very brief testament, which is, uh, you know, was questioned and contested by family and, uh, whether it's even a legal doc-document, in transforming that into a formal set of statutes and an institution, shall we say, they came up with this idea of this festivity.

I mean, it, it essentially, all, all Nobel seems to have wanted is to give lots of money to brilliant young persons.

And, and in a draft he writes men and women, uh, afterwards he just changes it to, to persons, to help them realize their dreams and, and i-i-ideas.

And, um, also in early drafts, we know he had considered that most of the money would go to, uh, establishing, uh, huge model laboratories i-in Stockholm, and winners would not get so much money, but they'd be able to spend, um, a large part of their time in these laboratories, giving them, giving them opportunities to, uh, develop their, their ideas.

But lo and behold, we suddenly have this, you know, massive festivity, uh, celebration.

Uh, at first, the Swedish w- uh, king, uh, did not attend the first, uh, uh, award ceremony.

They're a little unsure about all of this.

But it became such a big hit because you have the diplomats, uh, pra- you know, praising the beauties of Sweden and the great intellectual traditions and the Swedish, uh, members of the academy s- singing beautiful songs and descriptions of the, the, of the winners a- and, and the, their, their country and their scientific traditions.

And then you have, you might say, uh, pomp defined the circumstances, uh, and, uh, in the context of, uh, late 19th, early 20th century, don't forget the Olympics had just been renewed.

And what's often fig- left out in the little descriptions of Olympic history, this, it was couched in the social Darwinistic racial theories of the time that were very prevalent, and it was seen as a way for, uh, the different nations, the different races, uh, to, uh, compete peacefully to show which of them is more evolved and, and, and fit.

And the announcement of the Nobel Prizes was seen that this was going to be an Olympics of, of culture and, and, and s- and science.

And science especially is important because what differentiated, uh, European culture and c- civilization and, and racial fitness from the natives of Africa and in the jungles of South America, and that would be Christianity and science and advanced technology.

And [clears throat] so it was seen that the, the Nobel Prizes would be a, uh, level playing field where the different, even the, the different advanced nations can compete to see who, who is more fit.

And nobody could be more fit to judge than North Europeans, uh, Scandinavian, Nordics, 'cause, you know, all, all, all of the [chuckles] North European male, uh, upper class and bourgeois professors would say, "Who's on the top of the evolutionary list?" People like themselves.

So, um, you know, Sw- Sweden was considered to be biologic.

Swedes, Swedish men, uh, biologically more, uh, uh, capable of objectivity than, say, uh, an Italian woman or, uh, uh, or a Spanish man, uh, in, in, in the thinking at the time.

And of course, the massive amount of money was, uh, of, of, of great significance.

And as the, uh, uh, Swedish mathematician, uh, Gösta Mittag-Leffler, uh, s- made a snide comment that its bourgeo- is nobility, bourgeois mentality equates largest amount of money with the greatest honor.