First round 2022/2023

On November 27, the first round of the 2022/2023 Swiss Philosophy Olympiad ended with 140 submissions; the majority in German, 14 in French and 10 in English. 

The participants of the first round could choose from one of the four topics:

1. "When humans lose faith in reason, fear settles in their souls." -  Swetlana Alexijewitsch, Tschernobyl: Eine Chronik der Zukunft
2. “It is legitimate to assume that a [political] candidate who shares our identity will understand the social position we occupy, the resistance we encounter, and how recalcitrant that resistance is.” - Linda Alcoff, Why Do Social Identities Matter?
3. Can we know what someone else is thinking?
4. Can art be harmful?

Topics 3 and 4 were the most popular, with 46 and 43 essays. Topic 1 came third with 36 essays, and Topic was chosen by only 9 students in total.

The essays were graded anonymously according to our criteria: coherence, persuasiveness, originality, relevance and philosophical context. In addition to our volunteers, who worked on the first phase of the evaluation process, we would like to express our gratitude to the many Philosophy Olympiad alumni and students of philosophy who made the second phase of the evaluation process possible, which took place in Bern on December 10: Bode Obwegeser, Fabienne Suter, Florian Gatignon, Nicola Grossrieder, Pascal Kronenberger, Philipp Altmann, Simon Kräuchi, Timo Junger, Tina Hitzblech and Yvonne Hartmann. Thank you for your work!

The authors of the 42 highest rated essays have been invited to the semi-finals on January 19 at  Collège de Gambach in Fribourg (FR), Gymnasium Lerbermatt in Köniz (BE)  and  Kantonsschule Zürcher Oberland in Wetzikon (ZH). There, they will be writing another essay and participating in a philosophical workshop. 

The following participants qualified for the semi-finals (in alphabetical order):