The Berggruen Institute, known for, among other things, its $1 million annual “philosophy and culture” prize, has launched a new philosophy essay competition.

The aim of the annual prize is

to stimulate new thinking and innovative concepts while embracing cross-cultural perspectives across fields, disciplines, and geographies. By posing fundamental philosophical questions of significance for both contemporary life and for the future, the competition will serve as a complement to the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture, which recognizes major lifetime achievements in advancing ideas that have shaped the world.

The contest will accept submissions in English or Chinese, with a winner selected from each language. The winning articles will be published in the institute’s magazines, Noema (English) and Cuiling (Chinese).

The winners will each receive $25,000.

They are not seeking peer-reviewed academic work, nor presumably writing in that style (a few of the examples they provide, such as Thomas Nagel’s “What is it like to be a bat?” were published in academic philosophy journals, but I suppose they’re taken to be not representative of the genre). Rather, they say:

We are inviting essays that follow in the tradition of renowned thinkers such as Rousseau, Michel de Montaigne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Submissions should present novel ideas and be clearly argued in compelling ways for intellectually serious readers.

The deadline for the inaugural contest is June 30th, 2024.

You can learn more about the prize here.

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