Think Essay Prize Shortlist Announced

The Royal Institute of Philosophy today announced the shortlist of the Think Essay Prize.

The shortlisted candidates will win a year’s free subscription to Think.

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

While the clarity of the submissions made judging their content easier, the uniformly good quality made the task of selecting a shortlist and ultimate winner much more difficult. The judges had a very hard time reaching a decision given so many excellent contributions. Every student who submitted an essay can be justifiably proud of what they produced. Those who made it to the shortlist had all produced undergraduate level work.

The judging panel has selected the following essays for the shortlist:

• Daniel Self, Merchant Taylors’ School: Eating (Cultured) Meat
• Ari Shtein, Washtenaw International High School: Machine thought on a continuum
• Claudia Wong, Cheltenham Ladies’ College: Is It Morally Wrong to Eat Meat?
• Kan Zhang, BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour: Being Skeptical About Skepticism

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

Some comments from our judging panel:

There were many great applications, which made my job harder! There were two types of great essays: those who followed a more rigid argumentative approach, more analytical, with a clear and classic structure; and those who were very creative, which is a very important factor in philosophy. – Jonas Faria Costa

The vast array of knowledge, reasoning and excellent penmanship displayed in this year’s Think competition made these essays a joy to read and an honour to judge. The prompts posed a demanding range from AI to animal ethics, yet there is no doubt those who submitted rose to the occasion. I feel extremely privileged to have played a role in the selection process, and am excited to see the even more wonderful writers you will all surely become. – Natalie Armour

It was a great privilege to read such diverse and interesting essays for the 2024 THINK Prize. The quality of submissions was very high, which made choosing the final essays all the more difficult, to say the least. From thoughtful analyses on animal ethics to the proposal of machine minds in the future, I hope those who applied consider taking philosophy further, where they can broaden and discuss these ideas even more! Congratulations to those who took the time to enter; it was truly a joy to read them. – Katherine Ashmore