约翰洛克写作竞赛 (John Locke Essay Competition）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的学术项目。竞赛所有评委均来自于英国牛津大学。
【论文主题】
哲学、政治、经济学、历史、心理学、神学和法律。
【高年级组参赛要求】15-18岁学生
【参赛时间】
2023年约翰洛克写作竞赛将于英国时间3月15日开放注册，5月31日注册截止。
论文提交截止时间为6月30日，7月31日通知入围候选人
Philosophy 哲学
Q1. A team of scientists wants to discover how many genders there are. How should they proceed? 一个科学家小组想探究有多少种性别存在，他们应该如何实现这个目标？
Q2. In what sense are you the same person today that you were when you were ten? 从哪种意义来说，今天的你和10岁的你是同一个人？
Q3. Is tax theft? 税收属于盗窃行为吗？
Politics 政治学
Q1. Do the results of elections express the will of the people? 选举结果是否反映了人民的意愿？
Q2. If China becomes the leading superpower, what would that mean for the people who live there? What would it mean for everyone else? 如果中国成为主要超级大国，这对在中国生活的人意味着什么？对其他人意味着什么？
Q3. What might account for the different levels of political corruption in your own country and your country's nearest neighbour? 有什么原因导致参赛者所属的国家与该国最邻近国家在政治腐败程度上的不同？
Economics 经济学
Q1. A government funds its own expenditure by taxing its population. Suppose, instead, it relied solely on money newly created by the central bank? What would be the advantages and/or disadvantages? 政府通过对人民征税来为自己的支出提供资金。假如它仅依靠中央银行新创造的资金，这样做有什么样的优势和/或劣势？
Q2. In his thought experiment, the Iowa Car Crop, David Friedman tries to show that growing wheat is, in an important sense, just another 'technology' we can use for manufacturing cars, and in some circumstances a much more efficient one.
If international trade is thus a way of using less valuable inputs to produce more valuable outputs, why would governments impose trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas, thereby forcing producers to be more wasteful and less efficient? 大卫·弗里德曼在他的思想实验“爱荷华州汽车作物”中试图表明，从重要意义上讲，种植小麦是我们可以用来制造汽车的另一种“技术”，在某些情况下这是一种效率更高的技术。
果国际贸易因此是一种利用价值较低的投入生产更有价值的产出的方式，那么政府为什么会施加关税和配额等贸易壁垒，从而导致生产者效率变低且造成更多浪费？
Q3. What would happen if we banned billionaires? 如果我们不允许亿万富翁存在，将会发生什么？
History 历史学
Q1. How much richer or poorer are the British today than they would have been without the effects of British colonialism? 如果没有当年英国殖民主义的影响，今天的英国人会更富裕还是更贫穷？
Q2. Which has a bigger effect on history: the plans of the powerful or their mistakes? 权贵所作出的计划，抑或是他们所犯下的错误对历史的影响更大？
Q3. Which characteristics distinguish successful movements for social change from unsuccessful ones? 哪些特征可以将成功的社会变革运动与失败的社会变革运动作出区分？
Psychology 心理学
Q1. Can happiness be measured? 幸福可以被计量吗？
Q2. In surveys conducted in the United States, significantly more than half the respondents reported that they believed themselves to be more attractive than the median person in their country. How might we account for this? 在美国进行的一项调查发现，超过一半的受访者表示他们认为自己比本国位于“吸引力中位数”的人更有吸引力。我们该如何解释这个现象？
Q3. Are beliefs voluntary? 信仰是自发性的吗？
Theology 神学
Q1. What distinguishes a small religion from a large cult? 小宗教与大宗教有什么区别？
Q2. If you cannot persuade your intelligent, sympathetic friends to embrace your religious belief system, do you have enough reason to believe what you believe? 如果你不能说服你聪明又富有同情心的朋友接受你的宗教信仰体系，你认为你有足够的理由相信你所信仰的宗教信仰体系吗？
Q3. What was God doing before He created the cosmos? 上帝在创造宇宙之前在做什么？
Law 法律
Q1. Would justice be better served in the United States if more Supreme Court judges were women? 如果更多的zuigao法院法官是女性，美国的司法会更好吗？
Q2. Suppose that you were contemplating, in violation of the rules of this competition, submitting an essay written for you by artificial intelligence. What would be the difference between such an act and ordinary attempted theft? 假设你打算违反约翰洛克论文比赛的规则，提交一篇由人工智能为你撰写的论文，这种行为和普通的盗窃未遂有什么区别？
Q3. Are there too many laws? 现存的法律是否过多？
