Competition Rules
In order to stimulate philosophical thought and hopefully produce some material which can be included in the 'Philosophy' sticky, I would like to announce a competition for philosophical essays.
The essay should be on a particular theme in philosophy and should attempt to cover the theme in a balanced way (considering various views, rather than simply stating your own belief). The essay should include links or citations for any third-party materials you quote or refer to. A number of exemplar titles are given below, but you are free to choose your own title and subject matter and we strongly suggest that you pick something that interests you personally. If you are intruiged by a question like 'could we really be in the Matrix?' then choose that. Both myself and Indi would also be happy to help you select a question and suggest ways of tackling it - simply ask in the Essay Competition thread. Remember also that each of the example titles below can be tackled in many different ways.
Each essay must contain a minimum of 1000 words. The competition will be judged by myself and Indi, and our decision will be final. The winning essayist will receive FRIH$2000. If we feel that more than one essay is worthy of a prize, we will award extra 'merit' prizes of FRIH$1000 each.
Entries should be posted in the thread titled 'Essay Competition'. The competition is open from today and will close on March 1st.
Exemplar titles:- Does truth really exist?
- What is freedom?
- What is the meaning of life?
- Do we even exist?
- Does God exist?
- Do we have free will?
- Do we have a soul?
- How can we know when something is true?
- How is a priori knowledge possible?
- The problem of universals.
- What is beauty?
- What is consciousness?
- What is freedom?
- What is good? What is evil?
- What is just?
- What is real?
- What are time and space?
I might consider entering, but it seems unlikely right now for personal reasons. I'd be happy, however, to give any help you or Indi might need in managing the contest.
Good luck to all.
Advice to potential entrants: don't bite off more than you can chew. ^_^; Each of those suggested titles represents libraries of possible essays - a good suggestion would be to narrow it down... a lot... to make it more manageable.
Ill try the last one. Since I talked about it in this topic: http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-87496.html. Coincidence huh?? 
. anyway I'll do: What are time and space?
*whistles* Big question. ^_^ Good luck!
(Oh, and remember, this is a philosophical essay, not a science one, so don't worry about researching Yau-Calabi spaces or topographies or that kind of stuff - sure you can use science to back up a claim, but be careful! ^_- In philosophy, reason is king, not evidence or observation as in science.) I know:
My note before hand:
This is Philosophy, so many people could disagree with this. There is no PROOF!! Philosophers use some things which they believe are true (or can be trusted) and reason with that until they "find" something worth telling the world about.
Everyone has to believe something. A scientist believes that what he/she sees with his/her eyes is really happening and not a hallucination of some sort etc. etc.
| Klaw 2 wrote: |
I know:
My note before hand:
This is Philosophy, so many people could disagree with this. There is no PROOF!! Philosophers use some things which they believe are true (or can be trusted) and reason with that until they "find" something worth telling the world about.
Everyone has to believe something. A scientist believes that what he/she sees with his/her eyes is really happening and not a hallucination of some sort etc. etc. |
Well, not really. The good scientist will assume that they may well be hallucinating or misrecording something - which is why we generally don't accept experimental evidence until it has been independantly verified (ie repeated by other scientists).
That aside, however, philosophy generally uses reason (ie a chain of logical/rational steps) to arrive at it's destination. That separates it from pure opinion, which does not need to be rational or logical. | Bikerman wrote: |
| Klaw 2 wrote: | I know:
My note before hand:
This is Philosophy, so many people could disagree with this. There is no PROOF!! Philosophers use some things which they believe are true (or can be trusted) and reason with that until they "find" something worth telling the world about.
Everyone has to believe something. A scientist believes that what he/she sees with his/her eyes is really happening and not a hallucination of some sort etc. etc. |
Well, not really. The good scientist will assume that they may well be hallucinating or misrecording something - which is why we generally don't accept experimental evidence until it has been independantly verified (ie repeated by other scientists).
That aside, however, philosophy generally uses reason (ie a chain of logical/rational steps) to arrive at it's destination. That separates it from pure opinion, which does not need to be rational or logical. |
Yes, i think saying there is no proof in philosophy is completely contrary to what philosophy is. Saying that people could disagree with a philosophical claim is also misleading.
Philosophy is quite simple. All it involves is making an argument to support some claim. That's all there is to it. The catch is that you have to make a good argument. It has to contain nothing that cannot be shown true, and it can have no logical fallacies. If you can do that, then no one can disagree with the claim, even if they don't like it. Bertrand Russell said: "The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it." The way to do that, is with a solid argument (one free of false premises and logical fallacies).
But i'm not expecting anyone to come up with a philosophical claim or an argument all on their own. That would be absurd. i'm expecting them to research existing philosophical arguments, and explain them briefly and clearly. | Bikerman wrote: |
| Klaw 2 wrote: | I know:
My note before hand:
This is Philosophy, so many people could disagree with this. There is no PROOF!! Philosophers use some things which they believe are true (or can be trusted) and reason with that until they "find" something worth telling the world about.
Everyone has to believe something. A scientist believes that what he/she sees with his/her eyes is really happening and not a hallucination of some sort etc. etc. |
Well, not really. The good scientist will assume that they may well be hallucinating or misrecording something - which is why we generally don't accept experimental evidence until it has been independantly verified (ie repeated by other scientists).
That aside, however, philosophy generally uses reason (ie a chain of logical/rational steps) to arrive at it's destination. That separates it from pure opinion, which does not need to be rational or logical. |
I meant that everything we (all humans) see is not happening, so that it would't matter how many scientist would do a single experiment over and over again. Sort of general hallucination. Like the Matrix.
That's what is said what they "find" is completely reasonend to (with logical steps). But everyone has to believe some things are true (or can be trusted). Some believe they can only trust the mind others think they only can trust what they see/hear etc. (Rationalism/Empirism). And people can disagree with the things you beleive are truw.Well, I'm looking forward to reading your essay. Good luck (give a shout if you want to clarify anything before posting it).
Is there a time span in which this should be done? I am thinking about writing one of these essays and was wondering how quickly I should try and have it done.
| Afaceinthematrix wrote: |
| Is there a time span in which this should be done? I am thinking about writing one of these essays and was wondering how quickly I should try and have it done. |
March 1st.Still no entries for this and only 2 days to go...
Yup, i got nothing either. Oh well. ^_^;
| Indi wrote: |
| Yup, i got nothing either. Oh well. ^_^; |
Very disappointing. I'm wondering whether it is worth extending the competition...... | Bikerman wrote: |
| Indi wrote: | | Yup, i got nothing either. Oh well. ^_^; |
Very disappointing. I'm wondering whether it is worth extending the competition...... |
We could make it open ended? Just whenever someone presents a really awesome essay, reward them? | Indi wrote: |
| Bikerman wrote: | | Indi wrote: | | Yup, i got nothing either. Oh well. ^_^; |
Very disappointing. I'm wondering whether it is worth extending the competition...... |
We could make it open ended? Just whenever someone presents a really awesome essay, reward them? |
Yep - let's do that.
OK Folks - write an essay. The terms and conditions are above but disregard the time limit. If anyone writes a decent essay then they will get the rewards (FRIH$2000).
