12th VIZE 97 Prize to be accepted by Austrian philosopher and essayist
The year’s VIZE 97 Prize, which is awarded annually on the date of Vaclav Havel’s birthday by the Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation, will be accepted by Professor Konrad Paul Liessmann of the University of Vienna, thereby becoming the twelfth Laureate.
Konrad Paul Liessmann, who will accept the VIZE 97 Prize from the hands of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel at Prague’s Crossroad on Tuesday 5th of October 2010, is the senior lecturer at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Vienna. He also works as an essayist, literary critic and journalist, in particular devoted to the arts. Recently his book the “Theory of Miseducation” was published in the Czech Republic, which is a criticism of the current state of science and education, especially in the humanitarian field, likewise providing an outlook into the future. The book containing Liessmann’s opinions on errors and delusions related to the term education, has received a great response from readers. On the occasion of awarding the Prize, the VIZE 97 Foundation will issue an anthology of ten texts – lectures under the title The Value of Man – Political-philosophical essays, in which the author summarises his opinions on key problems of modern day society.
Laureates of the Dagmar and Václav Havel VIZE 97 Prize:
Konrad Paul Liessmann
Univ. Prof. Dr. Konrad Paul Liessmann was born in Villach on 13th April 1953. Following his studies of philosophy, Germanics, history, psychology and sociology in Vienna, he began devoting himself to the issues of teaching philosophy and other education of teachers. At the same time, he became interested in the philosophical problems of technology and culture, among others, in relation to the philosophical work of Günther Andres. He habilitated in the field of philosophy by writing about the philosophy of aesthetics, which he continued to intensively devote himself to.
He was also intrigued by Austrian Catholic Thinker Friedrich Heer, whose selected writings he prepared for publishing (2003) in two volumes. In 1996 he was appointed Associate Professor, in 2005 he became a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and since 2008 he has been the Vice-Dean of the Philosophical and Pedagogical Faculty (Fakultät für Philosophie und Bildungswissenschaft) of the University of Vienna. From the beginning of the nineteen-nineties, he intensively devoted himself to the philosophical issues of society following radical changes in 1989. Furthermore, he wrote a book on Karl Marx (Karl Marx – Man stirb nur zweimal, 1992) and several others – the most significant of which includes e.g. Der Aufgang des Abendlandes – Eine Rekonstruktion Europas (1994), Zukunft kommt! – Über säkularisierte Heilserwartungen und ihre Enttäuschung (2007) and a number of anthologies, which he also edited. He is also a political commentator and publicist in a number of significant dailies. In 1996 he was awarded the Austrian state prize for cultural journalism and is also the recipient of e.g. the Austrian title “Scientist of the Year 2006” and the literary aware “Danubius 2009”.
The translation of his book Theorie der Unbildung – Die Irrtümer der Wissensgesellschaft (2006): Theory of Miseducation – Errors in Society’s Knowledge (Academia, Prague 2008 and reprint) received tremendous from readers in the CR. The book contains Liessmann’s thoughts on the errors and delusions related to the term education.
