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Robinson College Essay Prize 2022

Hi! Apologies if another post has already been made about this but did any of you guys submit to this year's Robinson College Essay Prize? Wanted to know if you did and how you found it!! I did the question about whether Science can teach us how to live :smile:

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Reply 1
I also did it! Super interesting and actually quite fun experience. I dont think I'll win anything tbh, but I did the same question as you! What did you write about? I did mine on Psychiatry and how it (negatively) informs us how to live by medicalising behaviours and expecting conformity to a certain structure at risk of being labelled 'ill'.

Out of interest did you get a confirmation email for it of any sort? I've heard literally nothing and I feel paranoid...
Original post by IsraRai
I also did it! Super interesting and actually quite fun experience. I dont think I'll win anything tbh, but I did the same question as you! What did you write about? I did mine on Psychiatry and how it (negatively) informs us how to live by medicalising behaviours and expecting conformity to a certain structure at risk of being labelled 'ill'.

Out of interest did you get a confirmation email for it of any sort? I've heard literally nothing and I feel paranoid...


Hi!! Thats so interesting omg, that question was really expansive and in a way the fact that you could talk about anything made it somewhat difficult to answer! I did mine on Emergence, specifically in molecular structure because I want to study chemistry at uni, and talked about how the emergent properties of the universe could be at best, evidence or, at worst, a metaphor for how human collaboration is integral to technological and social progression. I do worry it was slightly waffly so i don't have high hopes but I'm glad i did it nonetheless. I didn't receive a confirmation email either so don't worry :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by 444nataly
Hi!! Thats so interesting omg, that question was really expansive and in a way the fact that you could talk about anything made it somewhat difficult to answer! I did mine on Emergence, specifically in molecular structure because I want to study chemistry at uni, and talked about how the emergent properties of the universe could be at best, evidence or, at worst, a metaphor for how human collaboration is integral to technological and social progression. I do worry it was slightly waffly so i don't have high hopes but I'm glad i did it nonetheless. I didn't receive a confirmation email either so don't worry :smile:


Relieved to hear there was no confirmation... sad to hear I am obviously going to lose to you, as that sounds way more complex/comprehensive than what I did 😭 I didn't have high hopes anyway, past years suggest there'll be 250+ entrants so I don't think things were really gonna go my way- but it was really fun to do :smile:
Original post by IsraRai
Relieved to hear there was no confirmation... sad to hear I am obviously going to lose to you, as that sounds way more complex/comprehensive than what I did 😭 I didn't have high hopes anyway, past years suggest there'll be 250+ entrants so I don't think things were really gonna go my way- but it was really fun to do :smile:

You never know!! Complexity doesnt equal quality im sure urs was just as good if not better. Besides, this is still a great thing to put on ur personl statement if ur applying to uni, i doubt they care whether we win or not, just as long as we can say how this experience helped us grow :smile:
Hi! I almost did the Science one (I think I'd have written about Sam Harris and the moral landscape or maybe Dworkin and morons idk) but ended up doing the one on translation instead - had lots of fun trying to come up with an analogy for translation (which was borderline impossible tbh). I tried entering a few other essay competitions but this one was definitely the most enjoyable to do.
Any of you know when they'll be sending out the results?
Reply 6
Original post by lloyd.dg
Hi! I almost did the Science one (I think I'd have written about Sam Harris and the moral landscape or maybe Dworkin and morons idk) but ended up doing the one on translation instead - had lots of fun trying to come up with an analogy for translation (which was borderline impossible tbh). I tried entering a few other essay competitions but this one was definitely the most enjoyable to do.
Any of you know when they'll be sending out the results?

You may be lucky you didn't do the science one, it seems slightly oversaturated... afaik there hasn't been any official date announced, but looking at previous years it's been about a month to a month and a half
If you guys wrote the science one you may be interested in the Lloyd Davies competition (https://www.oriel.ox.ac.uk/study-us/schools-liaison/lloyd-davies-philosophy-prize). One of the questions is 'Is mathematics similar to morality?' which has a similar vein.
I did the Law question on 'Should Law and Morality Collide?'.
Original post by Hussain7282
I did the Law question on 'Should Law and Morality Collide?'.


That one sounds super interesting - I'm only know remembering how hard it was to pick which question to do🤣. What sort of stuff did you write about?
Original post by lloyd.dg
That one sounds super interesting - I'm only know remembering how hard it was to pick which question to do🤣. What sort of stuff did you write about?

I'm applying for Law so it wasn't really hard for me to pick, but I answered the question in regards to Jurisprudence (The Philosophy of Law) and I basically covered the two schools of thought regarding Law and Morality with Legal Positivism and Natural Law Theory. Then I related each school of though to the idea of 'Morally Bad Law' like the laws in Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa.

My answer has a lot more to it, but that's a brief summary of what i wrote, but I really enjoyed writing the essay overall.
Original post by lloyd.dg
Hi! I almost did the Science one (I think I'd have written about Sam Harris and the moral landscape or maybe Dworkin and morons idk) but ended up doing the one on translation instead - had lots of fun trying to come up with an analogy for translation (which was borderline impossible tbh). I tried entering a few other essay competitions but this one was definitely the most enjoyable to do.
Any of you know when they'll be sending out the results?

woah that sounds so cool !!
Original post by 444nataly
woah that sounds so cool !!


I'm going to be applying to uni for philosophy and french but I also love creative writing so getting to do all three of those in my essay was great. My analogy for translation ended up being a wacky story about a hiker shouting from a mountaintop and a shepherd in the valley below thinking it was the voice of God :biggrin:. Probably a bit extra but it was good fun.
Original post by Hussain7282
I'm applying for Law so it wasn't really hard for me to pick, but I answered the question in regards to Jurisprudence (The Philosophy of Law) and I basically covered the two schools of thought regarding Law and Morality with Legal Positivism and Natural Law Theory. Then I related each school of though to the idea of 'Morally Bad Law' like the laws in Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa.

My answer has a lot more to it, but that's a brief summary of what i wrote, but I really enjoyed writing the essay overall.

Which side do you land on? Are you more of a legal positivist or natural law theorist?
Original post by lloyd.dg
Which side do you land on? Are you more of a legal positivist or natural law theorist?


More of a natural law theorist
Original post by lloyd.dg
Hi! I almost did the Science one (I think I'd have written about Sam Harris and the moral landscape or maybe Dworkin and morons idk) but ended up doing the one on translation instead - had lots of fun trying to come up with an analogy for translation (which was borderline impossible tbh). I tried entering a few other essay competitions but this one was definitely the most enjoyable to do.
Any of you know when they'll be sending out the results?

Hellooo I almost did the translation one but then decided to do the law and morality question instead! Didn't get any confirmation which was sort of worrying though :smile:
Original post by Hussain7282
I did the Law question on 'Should Law and Morality Collide?'.


Ohh I did that one as well!
Original post by hbpencil2
Hellooo I almost did the translation one but then decided to do the law and morality question instead! Didn't get any confirmation which was sort of worrying though :smile:


Hey! I've spoken to a few people (having had the same worry) and nobody got a confirmation, so don't worry :smile:
Original post by IsraRai
Hey! I've spoken to a few people (having had the same worry) and nobody got a confirmation, so don't worry :smile:


Ohh thanks that's good to know! Are you thinking of applying to Cambridge this year? :smile:
Original post by hbpencil2
Ohh thanks that's good to know! Are you thinking of applying to Cambridge this year? :smile:

Yep! I'm gonna be applying for Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, I did my essay on psychology too :smile: How about you?

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