Wednesday, December 11, 2013

APO H.S. Philosophy Essay Contest

We are announcing the American Philosophy Olympiad's HS Philosophy Essay. Brochures are going out in paper and electronic formats. This short blog post is the first electronic vehicle for it in a PDF format. All the information you will need to get started is here. This is the qualifier for the International Philosophy Olympiad 2014 in Lithuania. Good luck! Click here.

4 comments:

huangzi said...

To clarify, what qualifies as a philosophical topic in this competition?

Joe (José Luis) Murphy said...

huangzi,

Your essay is due on March 15. This is an extended deadline.

Any question that would have to do, at least, with the following branches or areas of inquiry qualifies as a philosophical topic:

Questions of that there is, really.
What's the fundamental nature of the universe? Mind, body, free will, God, causality....

Questions of what to do.
What's moral, aesthetic, ethical value?
Right and wrong, intrinsic good, moral objectivity or subjectivity....

Questions that have to do with knowledge.
What's knowledge?
Certainty, reason, experience, justification....

Questions about correct reasoning.
What is the nature and structure of reasoning?
Formal rules, inferences, arguments, logic....

Good luck,
Joseph Murphy

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MargaretBrownlee said...

I would like to add tips on how to choose a topic for a philosophical essay for those who choose a topic on their own and not for those who have a topic already given them by teachers.
1) Choose a suitable topic. Remember that a certain point of view on a controversial issue is upheld in a philosophical essay. Therefore, for such an essay, a topic is not suitable for which there is a consensus.
2) Choose an interesting topic for you. It will take a lot of time to prepare and write an essay, so you should choose a topic on which work will be interesting to you. When teachers choose a topic instead of students, they often have to write essays on topics that are not understandable to them and that are not interesting to them, in such cases, students often don’t even know where to start the essay and what to write in such an essay, so they use using the service essayhelp org, but when you have the opportunity to choose a topic yourself, you can’t allow such a situation so that you don’t understand what to write the essay about, so you don’t understand where to start the essay, so it’s not interesting for you to write an essay. So go to the topic selection thoroughly and creatively.
3) Check your main point. Discuss it with a friend or colleague (it is desirable that your interlocutor adheres to a different point of view). This will help you hone your arguments and lead to new arguments in support of your main point.
4) Rate your target audience. When writing a philosophical essay, it is important to understand who it is intended for.
5) Consider the rhetorical situation. When considering a topic, it is important to consider the factors that accompany it. The rhetorical situation consists of five main elements: the text (in our case, this is an essay), the author (in this case, you), the audience, the goal (or goals) pursued and the associated environment.