The Prize of the Fondation pour Genève


In deciding to award the Prize to Jean Starobinski 2010, as the Fondation pour Genève decided to honour "one of the great humanists of the century". It took into consideration the influence of his public activities as well as that of his books.

Doctor of Letters with a thesis on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean Starobinski is also a medical doctor. He taught at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Geneva, while pursuing research in the field of medical history. Literary critic of international renown, he saw his books translated into fifteen languages. His work covered a wide range of human experience, between artistic creativity and inner suffering. He devoted special attention to the art of the eighteenth century, to which he devoted his Invention of Liberty, published in Geneva in the collection "Art, Ideas, History" by Albert Skira. The portrait of the artist as a clown was published by the same publisher. More recently, Jean Starobinski has published other texts in Geneva with Zoe and La Dogana.

President of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Society, he watched with his colleagues as the publication of Annales by Jean-Jacques Rousseau was edited by the Genevan Droz. He has worked on editing the Complete Works of "Citizens of Geneva" in five volumes in the collection of the Pleiades, including the preface and annotating the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and the Essay on the origin of languages.

For twenty-nine years, Jean Starobinski has been president of the prestigious Rencontres Internationales in Geneva. They have allowed the public to listen to lectures and debates on the problems of our time, across Europe in their debut in 1946, and the world. Georges Nivat, who has taken, until recently, the Chair of the Rencontres Internationales, has ensured that all published volumes of proceedings over the years is freely accessible on the Internet.

More informations about Jean Starobinski