Lloyd Davies Philosophy Prize
The purpose of the Prize is:
- To give students in Year 12 or the Lower 6th who are considering applying to a University an opportunity to write about a subject they are interested in. This should enable them to develop their abilities for independent research and thought in Philosophy.
- To support teachers of able pupils by providing interesting and challenging further work in Philosophy and by bringing such students into contact with Higher Education.
- To encourage able students to consider applying to study Philosophy, either at Oxford or at another university, by giving them some experience of the type of work involved.
- To recognise the achievement and effort of the best of those who apply through prizes and commendations. Note: the judges are not able to provide feedback on any essays.
Assessment Criteria
Entrants should be in Year 12 (or equivalent) at their school or college. The judges will look for originality of thought, a clear grasp of the issues, clarity in presentation and a critical approach to what has been read. They will also look for a clear structure to the essay.
How to Apply
The 2021 competition is now closed for entries, information about the 2022 competition will be posted here in the Spring.
2021 Competition Result
This year we received close to 100 entries from students from all over the world. One essay has been chosen as the winner:
- Bo Cresser's (Kingsdale Foundation School, London) essay on the question “Does it really matter whether we have a free will or not?”
Read Bo’s essay here.
One essay has been chosen as the close runner-up
- Sirui Cai's (Raffles, Singapore) essay on the question “Does it really matter whether we have a free will or not?”
Read Sirui’s essay here.
The standard of entries was extremely high. The assessors wish to single out for special mention the essays by:
- Amia Guha (Westminster School, Oxford), on the question “Does it really matter whether we have a free will or not?”
- Nicholson Kanefield (Boulder High School, Colorado) on the question “Do you know that you are not dreaming right now? If so, how? If not, does it matter?”
- Pongsapak Waiwitlikhit (Shrewsbury International School Riverside, Bangkok) on the question “Should we rethink the nature and limits of freedom of speech in the internet age?”
- Oliver Weiner (Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School) on the question “Do you know that you are not dreaming right now? If so, how? If not, does it matter?”
The essays by
- William Dewhurst (Downside School, Radstock)
- Cecilia, Forsyth (St Paul’s Girls’ School, London)
- Maya Grunschlag (St Paul’s Girls’ School, London)
- Jiay Lin (Cardiff Sixth Form College)
- Lucy Richardson (Cranford House School, Wallingford)
- Haley Son (Seoul Foreign School)
- Nathan Steward (Marling School, Stroud)
- Martha Vine (Godolphin and Latymer School, London)
were also highly commended.
2020 Competition Result
In 2020, two essays were chosen as joint winners:
- Kunal Barman's (St Edward’s School) essay on the question: "should vaccines be compulsory?" Read Kunal's essay here.
- Elliott Bonal's (Ecole Diagonale, France) essay answering the question: "Is it rational to believe in the existence of viruses but not to believe in the existence of dark matter?" Read Elliott's essay here.
The general standard of entries was high. The assessors singled out for special mention the essays by
- Bruce, Edward (Ralph Allen School)
- Walsh, Oliver (Royal Grammar School)
The essays by
- Orkeny, Bence (ELTE, Radnoti Miknlos Gyakorlo Altalanos Iskola es Gyakorlo Gimnazium, Hungary)
- Yang, Joanne (Seoul International School)
- Pang, Gabriel (Comberton Sixth Form)
- O’ Gorman, Tom (Brighton College)
- Goel, Abhay (Westminster School)
- Frasheri, Allan (Largo High School)
were also highly commended.
2019 Competition Result
The joint winners of the 2019 competition were Matthew Drury (Loughborough Grammar School) and Tom Francis (Twyford CofE High School). Matthew and Tom each received prizes of £200 and you can read their winning essays below:
Matthew Drury, Loughborough Grammar School. Read his winning essay here.
Tom Francis, Twyford CofE High School. Read his winning essay here.
In addition to the joint winners, our tutors highly commended the essays of the following three entrants:
- Alessandro Coppola, Malvern College (Title 3)
- Kai Kobashi, Kaetsu Ariake High School (Title 2)
- Shrinidhi Prakash, St Olave's Grammar School (Title 1)