John Locke Essay Competition写作比赛是由位于英国牛津的独立教育组织John Locke Institute与英国牛津大学和美国普林斯顿大学等名校教授合作组织学术项目，意在考察学生在不同学科领域内的基本知识结构，议论文的基本写作格式与技巧，独立思考能力以及清晰的逻辑和辩证分析能力。其评审全部来自英国牛津大学，参赛对象均为全世界范围内思考能力*的中学生。在比赛中获得荣誉可以大幅提升美国和英国大学本科申请竞争力。往年参与学生录取成绩包括普林斯顿、哈佛、耶鲁、斯坦福、芝加哥、伯克利、牛津、剑桥等世界名校。
我们每天都在使用语言和文字，但很少有人知道，与其他生物的大脑不同，人的大脑天生具备学习语言的天赋，而人类语言体系的复杂程度也非任何其他生物的交流体系可比。语言和文字是人类最珍贵的能力之一。
很多时候我们发现自己有获得信息的渠道，却不会筛选有效信息；有零星的论点，却没有完整的论证逻辑；会借鉴别人的观点，却无法形成新的想法。提升写作能力的本质是提升思考能力，无论将来学习什么专业，从事什么行业，强大的写作能力都能使一个人受益终身。
2019年竞赛Essay问题
2019年的可选题目涉及7个领域的21个题目，具体为：
Philosophy哲学类：
Q1.Do our intuitions provide a reason to believe one moral claim over another?Can we prove this?Does it matter?
Q2.What is meaning?How much would it matter if we had none?
Q3.Aristotelian virtue ethics achieved something of a resurgence in the twentieth century.Was this progress or retrogression?
Politics政治类
Q1.How much should we care about social cohesion?
Q2.How much of a problem is political ignorance?What should we do about it?
Q3.How dangerous is Big Data for democracy?
Economics经济类
Q1.Should we abolish the Fed?
Q2.What does economics tell us about the benefits and costs of immigration?What policy should we adopt?
Q3.You have fifteen minutes of Donald Trump’s undivided attention.How will you persuade him to reform US trade policy?
History历史类
Q1.Which was worst:Nazism,Fascism or Communism?
Q2.When did we begin taking progress for granted,and why?
Q3.According to Henry Kissinger,‘those ages which in retrospect seem most peaceful were least in search of peace.Those whose quest for it seems unending appear least able to achieve tranquility'.Comment on this claim in light of events since 1945.
Psychology心理学类
Q1.Why is it so hard for one reasonable person to persuade another reasonable person to change her mind?What should we do about this?
Q2.What are the most important recently-acquired insights from neuroscience which have yet to be widely applied to education?
Q3.Should we try to become more rational?How?
Theology神学类
Q1.Should I be held responsible for what I believe?
Q2.I believe in God.Which God should I believe in?
Q3.What kind of God would create trillions of animals and permit a great many of them to die painful deaths?Should we worship such a God?
Law法律类
Q1.Some things are illegal because they are bad.Are some things bad because they are illegal?
Q2.Should computer generated child pornography be permitted?
Q3.Could we have private law?
Junior Category初中组（参赛邀请将发给针对2019年7月31日后15周岁的候选学生）
Q1.Should candidates for high office be judged unfit on the basis of something they said or did when they were very young?
Q2.Is inequality increasing?Does it matter?What,if anything,should we do about it?
Q3.According to Nobel Laureate,Milton Friedman,'there is one and only one social responsibility of business...to increase its profits...'Do you agree?
Q4.When,if ever,have there been‘good’revolutions?
1.无国籍、学校限制，在参赛作品提交截止日前大于或小于18周岁（不过在参赛作品提交截止日2019年7月31日前不满19周岁的学生可以角逐奖项或奖状推荐），但是对角逐Junior Prize的参赛者要求在参赛作品提交截止日前不超过14周岁
2.仅可选择一个分类的一个问题完成一篇不超过2000字的Essay（字数不包含diagrams图标，tables of data数据表，footnotes注释，bibliography背景介绍或authorship declaration作者申明）
3.参赛作品必须是PDF格式线上提交，且文件命名规则是SURNAME姓,First Name名（比如POPHAM,Alexander）
