John Locke Institute Essay Competition (2025)

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, Prof Terence Kealey.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

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?​

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?​

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?​

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?