The results of the first stage of the International Philosophy Olympiad for Students, organised by Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and Lomonosov Moscow State University, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, have been announced. The event was held online on the 20th of September. The task was to write an essay on topics related to Immanuel Kant.
The Expert Committee received a total of 630 essays submitted by participants from 24 countries. The contributors included not only students of philosophy but also those studying law, bioinformatics, medicine, public relations, philology, economics, education, mathematics, and more.
The Jury Panel, composed of leading experts from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Saint Petersburg State University, the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belgrade University, and Belarusian State University, selected 51 outstanding essays. The submissions were evaluated on several criteria, including understanding of the chosen topic, clarity and coherence of argumentation, comprehensiveness of the topic, functional literacy, reflective position, and originality.
Among the winners are students from Belarus, India, Iran, Spain, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and France, representing the leading universities of their respective countries, namely Saint Petersburg State University, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Southern Federal University, National Research University Higher School of Economics, the French Ecole Du Centre Ouest des Avocats, University of Nicosia in Cyprus, Belarusian State University, Tehran University and University of Tabriz in Iran, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University named after Boris Yeltsin, and University of Granada in Spain, among others.
Experts noted that the most popular topics for student essays were Kant’s legacy in the context of moral philosophy, philosophical theology, and the philosophy of consciousness.
Fifty-one winners of the first stage of the Olympiad are invited to participate in the in-person stage in Kaliningrad, which will take place from the 26th to 28th of November 2024.
The final results will be announced, and the Olympiad winners will be celebrated on the 29th of November at the 14th-century Kaliningrad Cathedral.
The scientific and philosophical event, initiated by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin, will be held in autumn of 2024 in Kaliningrad. The First Olympiad was held in 2022.
I would like to thank all the participants of the great philosophical competition - these are not only students of humanities, but also future engineers, IT-specialists, doctors. This testifies to the relevance of philosophy among young people. We see an increase in the number of participants compared to the first Olympiad by several hundred people, and the expansion of geography is quite striking: 24 countries compared to 11 countries in 2022. Of course, mass participation was not our goal, but nevertheless, the interest in our intellectual intensive among students from leading universities in Russia and many countries of the world is important to us. It demonstrates the importance and relevance of such events.
This year it is evident that the Olympiad is getting more attention and the geography of its participants is expanding - both in Russia and abroad. The average level of works is high, a number of them can be regarded as an application of real serious young research. I would like to note the high level of interest and study of Kant's heritage in our country, as well as in those foreign participants who wrote essays. This cannot but please in the year of the 300th anniversary of the great thinker. The selection was very strict, the “threshold” for entering the number of winners was a score of 44.5 out of 50. When evaluating the works, special attention was paid to their originality and independence.
51 winners of the distance stage are invited to participate in the in-person stage in Kaliningrad, which will be held from November 26 to 28, 2024.
The final results will be summarized and the winners of the Olympiad will be announced on November 29 at the main historical stage of Kaliningrad - in the Cathedral of the 14th century.
Recall, the Scientific Philosophy Intensive is held in autumn 2024 in Kaliningrad on the initiative of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin. The Olympiad was held for the first time in 2022.