LASTEST UPDATE ▪️ COMPETITION INFORMATION
Aralia Student Receives 55 Awards from the John Locke Essay Competition!
John Locke Essay Competition
John Locke Institute Essay Competition is hosted by John Locke Institute, an independent educational organization located in Oxford, UK. Professors at the John Locke Institute are from famous universities like Oxford, Princeton, Brown, and Buckingham University.
Interested in the competition?
Competition Overview
Must be 18 years old, or younger
Eligibility
Free
Entry fee
April 1, 2025 - May 31, 2025
Registration timeline
July 7, 2025
Late entry deadline (7 day extension)
July 21, 2025
Late entry deadline (21 day extension)
July 31, 2025
Notification of short-listed essayists
October 3-5, 2025
Academic conference
October 4, 2025
Awards dinner
Competition Details
1. Eligibility
Students from all countries and schools can participate. The competition has two levels: one for high school students 18 years old and younger and the Junior Prize, focused on middle school students 14 years old and younger.
2. Subject categories
There are seven subject categories (excluding Junior Category): Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology, and Law. Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, not exceeding 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
3. Results
Shortlisted essays will be notified by July 31 and receive an invitation to Oxford for an academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. The dinner is completely optional.
4. Prizes
Winners of the subject categories and the Junior category will receive a $5000 scholarship for attending any John Locke Institute program.
The second-place winner will receive a $200 scholarship, and the third-place winner will receive a $1000 scholarship.
The winner of 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 John Locke’s summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes.
How to Win the John Locke Essay Competition?
Take the time to understand the essay prompt and what the question is asking for. Students could approach questions in several ways, but it should always link to John Locke’s philosophy.
Once you decide on your stance about the question, it’s important to present your argument with logical reasoning and strong evidence from reputable sources. Students can utilize a variety of reputable sources, including academic journals, books, and scholarly articles, to gather relevant information and develop a well-informed argument.
In addition to providing reasoning and evidence that support students’ arguments, students can also examine alternative perspectives to show that they have the ability to evaluate evidence critically– specifically the strengths and weaknesses of different viewpoints.
Competition Questions
1. Philosophy
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?
2. Politics
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?
3. Economics
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?
4. History
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?
5. Psychology
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?
6. Theology
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?
7. Law
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?
8. Junior Prize
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 smartphone more than is good for you?
Q7. Why do people become more boring as they grow up and grow older?
John Locke Essay Competition Past Winning Essays
Submission details
All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on the submission deadline: June 30, 2025
1. Word Limit
2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration)
2. Filename format
FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf
3. Academic Reference
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.
