John Locke約翰洛克論文競賽詳細介紹

競賽簡介 Introduction

約翰洛克寫(xie) 作競賽(John Locke Essay Competition)由位於(yu) 英國牛津的獨立教育組織John Locke Institute主辦，該組織與(yu) 牛津、普林斯頓、布朗、白金漢大學等名校教授都有合作。正如約翰·洛克精神一樣，競賽從(cong) 極富趣味性和挑戰力的寫(xie) 作題目出發，旨在培養(yang) 參賽者的議論文寫(xie) 作能力，考察參賽者對於(yu) 不同學科領域獨立深刻的見解、廣博的認知、清晰的說理能力、批判性的分析思維能力和說服力。此前參賽者被牛津、劍橋、普林斯頓、哈佛、耶魯、斯坦福、芝加哥、加州伯克利等名校錄取。

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis, and persuasive style. The Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum. Past students have gone on to study at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, and Berkeley.

競賽時間 Timeline

2025年4月1日-5月31日間學生必須完成報名注冊(ce) ，否則無法遞交論文參賽

2025年6月30日（英國時間晚11：59，即美東(dong) 時間下午6：59）截止投稿

Registrations open 1st April 2025.Only candidates who registered beforethe registration deadline of Saturday, 31 May 2025may enter this year's competition.All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BSTonthe submission deadline: Monday, 30 June 2025.

參賽資格 Eligibility

全球學生均有資格參賽，其中分為(wei) 高年級組和低年級組。

高年級組：15-18歲

低年級組：14歲及以下

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2025 is open to students from any country.Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on Monday, 30 June 2025. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

適合學生 Recommended to Students

➡專(zhuan) 業(ye) 興(xing) 趣方向為(wei) 經濟、心理、法律、新聞、國際關(guan) 係、哲學、曆史等人文社科的學生。

➡欲提升並證明自己議論文寫(xie) 作能力的學生。

➡Students who want to apply for majors including economics, psychology, law, media, international relations, philosophy, history, and other related fields.

➡Students who want to develop their persuasive writing skills.

競賽話題 Topics

Philosophy 哲學

Q1. What moral obligations do we owe to living persons that we do not owe to future persons? What are the implications of your answer for policy-making?

Q2. Should we treat non-human animals well because they have rights, interests, neither, or both?

Q3. "When civilians are the main target, there's no need to consider the cause. That's terrorism; it's evil." Is this correct?

Politics 政治

Q1. Should politicians ever be punished for lying?

Q2. David Hume celebrated the wisdom of "unlettered men". In a democracy, do the votes of the unlettered tend to protect a country against the bad ideas of the lettered or do the votes of the lettered tend to protect a country against the bad ideas of the unlettered?

Q3. Diversity is fashionable, but is it valuable?

Economics 經濟

Q1. What kinds of behaviour are engendered by the hope of profit? Is such behaviour better or worse, on balance, than the behaviour we should expect if all enterprises were owned by charities or governments?

Q2. What will be the effect on socio-economic mobility of the UK government's plan to impose value added tax on school fees?

Q3. Should Oxford lower its admissions standards for the sons and daughters of generous benefactors?

History 曆史

Q1. According to Bertrand Russell, "Hitler is an outcome of Rousseau; Roosevelt and Churchill of Locke." To what extent was he correct?

Q2. Should anyone be ashamed of their nation's history? Should anyone be proud of it?

Q3. Which figure in history did most to enlarge human freedom?

Law 法律

Q1. What injury should one person be permitted to inflict on another in the defence of private property?

Q2. “Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping?” Should the law treat offenders better than they deserve?

Q3. Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?

Psychology 心理

Q1. Is objectivity all in the mind?

Q2. Eleanor Roosevelt declared, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Is she right?

Q3. What is self-deceit?

Theology 神學

Q1. Is atheism implausible?

Q2. Why would the creator of a trillion galaxies become angry if you have sex with your boyfriend or eat bacon for breakfast?

Q3. Why pray?

Junior Prize 低年齡組

Q1. Your citizenship at birth was chosen for you. Which citizenship would you have chosen?

Q2. Do you benefit more from your own freedom of speech or from other people’s?

Q3. Who is more powerful - Donald Trump or Elon Musk?

Q4. Since 1920, twenty-one presidents and prime ministers from nine countries have been graduates of Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) at Oxford. Would it have been better if they had studied history?

Q5. What is your fair share of what someone else has earned?

Q6. Why do you continue to use your smartphones more than is good for you?

Q7. Why do people become more boring as they grow up and grow older?

寫(xie) 作要求 Entry Requirements

➡字數要求不超過2000字（不包括圖表、援引等）。

➡需以PDF形式提交文章。PDF命名方式：名-姓-論文話題組別-論文題號。

➡不允許加腳注。

➡原文中不得出現 參賽者姓名。

➡參賽者需提供一名導師郵件地址，以證明論文原創性。

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself.

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

獎項設置 Prizes

➡每個(ge) 參賽話題組別的第一名將獲得5000美金獎學金，用於(yu) 參加約翰洛克提供課程。第二名和第三名將分別獲得2000美金和1000美金。特等大獎將獲得10000美金。

There are prizes for the best essays in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worthUS$5000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme. The second place winner will receive a scholarship worthUS$2000 and the third place winner will receive a scholarship worthUS$1000.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes.