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Nobel's will actually directed that the prize to go "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind" by a discovery
by abecedarius 10y ago
Nobel's will actually directed that the prize to go "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind" by a discovery or invention. The previous-year part isn't even mentioned on the Wikipedia page. (I get that it's hard to judge.)
https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/ https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/
- cperciva 10y agoIsn't the "previous year" part usually interpreted to mean that the benefit is in the past year, rather than the work being done in the past year?
- abecedarius 10y agoI don't know; I wondered about that too. But this proviso hardly seems to come up at all in what I read, and that's interesting -- I wonder how often unusual wills get carried out to the letter.
- telotortium 10y agoI believe on Wikipedia it is mentioned that the price was originally awarded soon after the discovery. However, after several occasions where a discovery awarded the Nobel price was later invalidated Kama they switch to the present practice of interpreting it as the benefits becoming clearer in the past year, rather than the discoveries.
- abecedarius 10y agoThanks for pointing that out -- the relevant section is the middle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize#Recognition_time_lag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize#Recognition_time_l...