California State University, Sacramento
Department
of Philosophy
The Philosophy Department sponsors two essay contests each year for students.
The Perry Weddle Annual Essay Contest is held in the fall. The winner is the student majoring or minoring in philosophy who submits the best philosophical essay of any length on any topic. Winner receives $250.
The Jamil Nammour Essay Contest is held each spring, and the winners present their papers during the Department's annual Nammour Philosophy Symposium. The Nammour Essay is often required to be on a specific topic and to have a specific length. Winners receive $100.
Department judges will give preference to essays that were not already
winners in previous department essay contests. Unlike for the Weddle
Essay Contest, you may win the Nammour
Essay Contest without being a major or minor in philosophy.
Previous
winners of the essay contests
| 2007 |
Kristin Burke: "Evolutionary Dao" (Nammour) Lok Chi Chan: "Suicide: A Sin or a Gift" (Nammour) Lanae Hixson: "The Demarcation Between Religious and Scientific Claims" (Nammour) |
| 2006 | Lanae Hixson: Inquiry into the Boundaries of the A Priori Form." (Weddle) |
| 2006 |
Bret Buchanan: "Harry Potter and The Reason Why I Can't
Enroll at Hogwarts" (Nammour) Jeremy Trimble: "Side-by-Side: Truth and Lies" (Nammour) |
| 2005 | Brandon Carey: "Accidental Knowledge: The Incoherence of Fallibilist Justification" (Weddle) |
| 2005 |
Brandon Carey: "Against the Prohibition of Prostitution in a Free
Society" (Nammour) Geoffrey Propheter: "On the Legalization of Organ Selling and Blackmail" (Nammour) Cynthia Loya-Dall: "Coercive Money" (Nammour) |
| 2004 | Kacey Warren: "Marriage, Parenthood and John Stuart Mill" (Weddle) |
| 2004 |
Douglas
Sapola: "Maybe It's Only Raining: A Critique of the War on
Terror" (Nammour) Tiffany Pratt: "Creating the Perfect Storm" (Nammour) Kacey Warren: "Justice and the 'War on Terror" (Nammour) |
|
2003 |
Craig Evans: "Solutions to the Gettier Problem" (Weddle) |
|
2003 |
Robert
Boughton: "The Omniscient Denial of Morality"
(Nammour) |
| --- | Before 2003, there was one essay contest each year. |
|
2002 |
Keith
Madriago: "Clear Thought in an Unintelligible
Time" |
|
2001 |
Ann Fiske, "Forbidden Knowledge?" |
|
2000 |
David Graham, "Swinburne's Argument from Design and Hume's Reductio About Many Creators" |
|
1999 |
Mark Newman, "Does Scientific Realism Undermine the Integrity of Science?" |
|
1998 |
Ann Fiske, "The Two Cultures: Can Art and Science Be Reconciled?" |
|
1997 |
Karen Hornsby, "Understanding Rawls' Difference Principle" |
|
1996 |
Dave Heise, "Struggling With Myself: The Problem of Personal Identity" |
|
1995 |
Michael Lewis, "The Role of Anxiety in Kierkegaard" |
|
1994 |
Dede Stollee, "Ontological Relativity and Skepticism" |
|
1993 |
Peggy Jones, "Not As A Means" |
|
1992 |
Cathe Carr, "Title Unknown" |
|
1991 |
Judith Cross, "Kant's Ethics" |
|
1990 |
Patricia Henley, "William James, Pragmatism and Religious Faith" |
|
1989 |
Kurt Roggli, "Perception: The Latest Sensation?" |
|
1988 |
Gary Gex, "Kronecker and the Reality of Numbers" |
|
1987 |
Bill Boudier, "Is All Knowledge Teachable? A Discussion Based on the Protagoras" |
|
1986 |
Jeff Borrowdale, "Infinite Regression and the Cosmological Argument in Aquinas's Five Proofs for the Existence of God" |
The contest began in 1986. The Department is proud of its winners and expects great things of them in the future.
PHILOSOPHY DEPT
College of Arts and Letters / Admissions / CSUS
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Last updated: 5/5/07