royal institute of philosophy essay competition

The Philosophy Essay Prize

Each year the Royal Institute holds an essay prize competition. The winner will receive £2,500 and their essay will be published in Philosophy . 

2021 Topic: Self and Society

The topic for this year’s prize is ‘Self and Society’. We intend this topic to be understood very broadly, so as to include related issues in any area of philosophy. The following are illustrative examples:

Peer disagreement and epistemic partiality; judgement aggregation and social choice; the relations between group knowledge, individual knowledge and action. Self-knowledge and other minds. The importance of second-person judgement and knowledge. The role of intersubjectivity in language acquisition, communication, and shared linguistic understanding. How to understand first-person plural judgement and its significance. How to construe individual liberty within the social order. Our conception of ourselves and our ethical responsibilities and their relation to recognition of and by others in society. The balance between enforced restrictions to prevent the spread of disease in society and individual sacrifice; prioritizing treatment and vaccination locally and globally. The relation between society and its interests, and the collection of its individual members and their interests. The right to privacy and the use of data for social benefits. The impact of social media on individuals’ self-image. Individual identity and multiculturalism. The possibility or desirability of transcending the self. No-self metaphysics.

The winner will receive £2,500 and their essay will be published in  Philosophy .

The submission deadline has been extended to 20 December 2021. Entries will be considered by a panel of judges and the winner announced in Spring 2022. In assessing entries priority will be given to originality, clarity of expression, breadth of interest, and potential for advancing discussion. All entries will be deemed to be submissions to  Philosophy

In exceptional circumstances, the prize may be awarded jointly, in which case the financial component will be divided. The winning entry/entries will be published in the July 2022 issue of  Philosophy .

Please submit entries by email to [email protected], with the subject line 'Prize Essay'. The word-limit for the Essay Competition is 8,000 words.  Instructions for contributors can be found here.  Entries should be anonymised and suitable for blind review. (Please note that Essay Prize submissions should be sent to the email address above and should not submitted through the ScholarOne system.).

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Think Essay Prize Longlist Announced

The Royal Institute of Philosophy has announced the longlist of the 2024 Think Essay Prize competition.

The Think Essay Prize competition has been hugely popular. Despite this being only its first year, we received 330 student submissions.

Thank you to every single applicant. We greatly enjoyed reading all your essays. We also owe a big thank you to the very many schools with students who submitted essays – we very much appreciate your support.

Given the competition produced so many applicants, we sought the help of a number of additional judges who were involved in the first stage of selection. Our thanks to all of them for doing a very thorough and professional job.

The judging panel has selected the following publications for the longlist:

• Joseph Ang, German Swiss International School: Deep (Learning) in Thought: Why we should not rule out humanised and not just human-like machines
• Sabrina Bissoo, St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School:  Can I know that the world I experience is real?
• Ari Chi: Red Pill or Blue Pill?
• George Christiansen, RGS Guildford: Could a Machine Think?
• Giancarlo Colpani, Academia International School Zurich Oerlikon: Can I know that the world I experience is real?
• Scarlett Davis, Channing School: Can I know that the world I experience is real?
• Benedict Dooley, Liverpool Blue Coat School: Could a Machine Think?
• Ayush Gupta, Merchant Taylors School: Is It Morally Wrong to Eat Meat?
• Vinayak Kedia, Seth Anandram Jaipuria School Ghaziabad: Thinking about Thinking: Can Machines Think?
• Gregory Musaelian, American Heritage School Plantation Campus: Whether Machines Can Think: Is Value What’s Missing?
• James Pannick, Haberdashers’ Boys’ School: Omnivore or Speciesist?
• Benjamin Platt, St Mary Magdalene Academy: Is the external world real?
• Jessica Searancke, De Lisle College: Could a Machine Think?
• Daniel Self, Merchant Taylors’ School: Eating (Cultured) Meat
• Ari Shtein, Washtenaw International High School: Machine thought on a continuum
• Jake Song Schnistzler, Bishop O’Dowd High School: The Colour Green
• Claudia Wong, Cheltenham Ladies’ College: Is It Morally Wrong to Eat Meat?
• Kan Zhang, BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour: Being Skeptical About Skepticism
• Stephan Zuev, Westminster School: Is It Morally Wrong to Eat Meat?
• Gabriella Johnson, Monmouth School for Girls: An Exploration of the Metamorphosed Man’s Reality

Please note the longlist doesn’t include one applicant for privacy reasons.

Dr Stephen Law, Editor of Think and Chair of the Judging Panel, writes:

The quality of every single entry was of a good standard. We greatly enjoyed reading all the essays . What was particularly impressive was the clarity with which every contributor wrote. Essays were without exception easy to read and digest and clearly focussed on argument.

More comments from our judging panel:

The experience of being a judge for the THINK Essay Prize Competition was fantastic. The number of entries was very high, and participants engaged so well with the questions set (often using very different approaches). Lots of impressive knowledge, and understanding on show, and, importantly, excellent skills of philosophical analysis and evaluation. Well done to all involved! – Glenn Skelhorn

There were a few essays that stood out: they demonstrated a clear understanding of the question and sharp critical thinking skills. The essays I recommended all made their assumptions clear and investigated others implicit within the prompts. Philosophy is chiefly critical, not dogmatic, and it was this characteristic that all the best essays displayed. – B.V.E. Hyde

More information about the essay prize can be found here .

Natalie Armour Katherine Ashmore Chloe Rose Campbell Jonas Fariacosta Chrisantha Fernando Joshua Forstenzer B.V.E. Hyde Grace Lockrobin Chinaza Okonkwo John Robinson Glenn Skelhorn Vidhi Taparia