P
rince
of
A
sturias
A
wards
1981-2014. S
peeches
5
The passion for discovery, reflection and interpretation is as old as mankind. No matter the
different names it has been given over time —from spiritualism to the algorithm building—, it is
an endeavour that can take years; years spent pondering over a particular subject or puzzle.
However, the making of institutions, codes and a large number of inventions and
interpretations appears only in particular periods. These range from the period of high
scholarship in China, through the Academies of Ancient Greece and the great universities in Spain
and France in the Middle Ages, up to the universities of our modern age. It all required vast
amounts of work and of devoted workers and scholars.
This world of scholarship is today under attack, not simply large, visible attacks, but also under
attack by Lilliputian deployments, thousands of small wounds.
Saskia Sassen
—
Prince of Asturias Award
for Social Sciences
2013
Excerpt from the speech given on the
occasion of receiving the Prince of
Asturias Award for Social Sciences on
25/10/2013.
