The Great American Think-Off: A Return to the Public Philosophy Prize

In ethics lore, the philosopher who takes the prize for prizes is the 18th century French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A frustrated musician, by 1749, J.J. was both resentful and hurt that he was not as famous as his other philosophe friends, then igniting France with the Enlightenment. It so happened that Rousseau read about an essay contest in a magazine. The sponsor was the Academy of Dijon, which today we are more likely to recognize for naming a fancy mustard. What was the question of the day? 

We will get to that in a moment. This is a quiz. The result? First prize went to Rousseau for writing what has become known as his First Discourse, an essay that assured him fame and helped to secure his notoriety, not as a friend but as an "enemy" of the Enlightenment.  

And then there is the story about the well-known philosopher who won one prize, but was denied another.  In 1839, German  thinker Arthur Schopenhauer, won a prize for responding to the teaser put forth by The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. This became his work On the Freedom of Human Will. The question? We will get to that in a moment. This is a quiz.

Then, Schopenhauer, thinking the prize was a sure thing, because his essay was the only entry, entered  a similar Royal Danish Society of the Sciences competition. The Royal Danish balked, instead awarding the prize to their own response (after the deadline it appeared), claiming that Schopenauer could not have won, since he misunderstood the question. The question? We will get to that in a moment. This is a quiz.

So, today, you have a chance to become the next Rousseau, Schopenhauer or the Great American Think-Off prize winner for 2009. The prize is offered by the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in New York Mills, Minnesota, a town of a little over 1,000 people north of Minneapolis.

According to its promoters,  the contest is in its 17th year and is a "national philosophy competition providing an opportunity for ordinary people to voice their thoughts on some of life's more perplexing questions."  (And by the way, we learned about the Think-Off from the Center for Ethics in Public Life at the University of Michigan and want to thank them for telling us about it.) For the particulars of the contest go to: www.think-off.org. This year's question? We will get to that in a moment. This is a quiz.

We think the Great American Think-Off is such a great idea, we are thinking of starting a contest of our own of timely and current philosophical concerns. The questions? How about these for starters?

1. How should and can we regulate greed in a democracy?

2. Should people who fail at their jobs, no matter what the job is, have to give back a portion of their salary? (This is not a bonus question.)
 
3. How can and should we assign fair blame, if we always keep saying during this time of economic crisis that "there is enough blame to go around?"
 
4. What does it really mean when we say that a person has "done an honest day's work?"

You may have some more. Please contact us with your entries. In the meantime, here is the quiz.