John Locke Competition Intelligence

A working file for serious students. 10 categories decoded, 30 prompts read closely, 179 historical winners catalogued, 11 first-prize essays archived.

Built by Counselor Jay Refreshed 2026 For students of writing, not template-followers
Categories10
2026 Prompts30 across 10 cats
Historical Winners179 (2019–2025)
Established Cats7 (since 2019)
New for 20263 (PP, IR, S&T)
Essay Corpus12 first-prize essays

Categories

P
Philosophy

Intellectual frameworks, ethical reasoning, philosophy of mind.
G
Politics

Power, institutions, elections, political theory.
E
Economics

Markets, monetary theory, distribution, growth.
H
History

Historical judgment, causation, methodology.
Y
Psychology

Cognition, motivation, social identity, mental health.
T
Theology

Religion, ethics, the philosophy of belief.
L
Law

Jurisprudence, sentencing, the rule of law.

 New 2026
PP
Public Policy

Policy design, regulation, public goods.

 New 2026
IR
International Relations

Statecraft, trade, conflict, global institutions.

 New 2026
ST
Science & Technology

Philosophy of science, AI, the ethics of technology.

Six 2026 Prompts Worth Reading Twice

A snapshot of the most generative prompts across the 30 in the 2026 set. Click into the relevant category for the full decoded analysis.

Economics

Should we fear a cashless society?

Law

If legislators and judges all accepted the philosophical theory of determinism, what would be the effect on criminal sentencing?

Psychology

Is mental illness over-diagnosed now, or just better recognised?

Science & Technology

Should we be polite to ChatGPT?

Philosophy

Is it ever wrong to do the right thing for the wrong reasons?

History

'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' Is it? Does it?

2025 First-Prize Winners

The full archive of 179 winners across 2019–2025 lives in Winners.

CategoryNameSchoolCountry
EconomicsEmma LuoScarsdale High SchoolUnited States of America
EconomicsSecond Prize: Vivian ZhangWilliam G. Enloe High School United States of Americaunknown
HistoryAniha VashishtDelhi Public SchoolIndia
JuniorCharlie JohnsonThe Hutchins SchoolAustralia
LawMatthew WongSherborne SchoolUnited Kingdom
PhilosophyAlvin ZhangRaffles InstitutionSingapore
PoliticsNelli MorozovaExupery International SchoolLatvia
PsychologyXinmo ChenBeijing AcademyChina
TheologyTimothy HobbsEltham CollegeUnited Kingdom

Read the Winning Essays

12 archived first-prize essays, with PDFs where available and links to the original John Locke Institute pages. Browse the corpus →