About the Philosophy Essay Prize
Each year the Royal Institute of Philosophy holds an essay prize competition for their journal, Philosophy. The winner will receive £1,000 and £500 of CUP books. Their essay will be published in Philosophy.
Previous winners include:
- ‘Aristotle and the Ageing Body’ by Edward Lamb (2025 prize winner)
- ‘Overactive and Underactive Imagination’ by Emily Caddick Bourne and Craig Bourne (2024 prize winner)
- ‘The Emptiness of Naturalism’ by Thomas Raleigh and ‘Scorekeeping in a Therapeutic Language Game’ by Stefan Rinner (2023 joint prize winners)
- ‘Fitting Diminishment of Anger: A Permissivist Account’ by Renee Rushing and ‘Empathy and Psychopaths’ Inability to Grieve’ by Michael Cholbi (2022 joint prize winners).
About this year’s topic
The topic for this year’s prize is ‘Humans and AI’.
We intend this topic to be understood broadly, so as to include related issues in any area of philosophy and from any philosophical tradition.
How to enter
The submission deadline is 31 December 2026 23:59 GMT. Entries will be considered by a panel of judges and the winner will be announced in Spring/Summer 2027. All entries will be deemed submissions to Philosophy.
In assessing entries priority will be given to originality, clarity of expression, breadth of interest, and potential for advancing discussion.
In exceptional circumstances the prize may be awarded jointly, in which case the prize money and CUP books will be divided. The winning entry/entries will be published in the October 2027 issue of Philosophy.
The word limit for the Essay Competition is 8,000 words. Entries should be anonymised and suitable for blind review. Please submit entries by email to assistant@royalinstitutephilosophy.org, with the subject line ‘Prize Essay’. (Please note that Essay Prize submissions should not be submitted through the ScholarOne portal).