2011 NEW CROP PHILOSOPHY PRIZE and SYMPOSIUM

UC Berkeley undergraduate philosophy majors and minors are invited to submit essays for consideration for the 2011 New Crop Philosophy Prize:

First prize: $3,000

First runner-up: $2,000

Second runner-up: $1,000

Essays may be of any length up to ten pages. They should be submitted by electronic attachment to Janet Groome (jmgroome@berkeley.edu) by January 18, 2011.

The New Crop Prize aims to identify “outliers”: exceptional students who have the promise of revolutionizing their field. Like all philosophical essays, submissions should aim to be clear, cogent, and critically aware of existing debates. However, a premium will be placed on submissions that strive for originality: that perceptively challenge existing assumptions and positions.

For this year’s competition, essays should engage with some theme related to the work of our 2011 New Crop Symposium Visitor, Professor Samuel Scheffler, of New York University. Essays taking up issues from his recently published collection, Equality and Tradition, on reserve in Howison Library, are particularly welcome. His earlier books—The Rejection of Consequentialism, Human Morality, and Boundaries and Allegiances—are also on reserve in Howison and can in addition be accessed electronically, by any computer linked to the UC Berkeley Library network, via Oxford Scholarship Online.

The top five submissions, as determined by a committee of three graduate students, will be sent to Professor Scheffler, who will select the first-prize winner and two runners-up.

All undergraduates who submit an essay, along with members of the selection committee and interested faculty, are invited to attend the Symposium on March 16 and 17, 2011. On the first day, Professor Scheffler will give a seminar on one or more themes from his work. The second day will be devoted to the undergraduate essays. Professor Scheffler will present the awards and comment on the winning essays, with time left for student responses and broader discussion. The Symposium will conclude with a reception and a dinner whose invitees will include some or all of the undergraduate participants.

The prize realizes the vision of Igor Khandros and has been made possible by his generous support. In future years, the visitor will be selected in consultation with undergraduate majors.