International Philosophy Olympiad

The International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO) is one of the International Olympiads for high-school pupils. It first took place in 1993, by an initiative of the Department of Philosophy of Sofıa University to invite a group of philosophers from various countries. Since 2001 the IPO has been organized under the auspices of FISP and with the recognition and support of UNESCO.
Objectives.
The objectives of the IPO are:
Organization.
The IPO is organized every year in May, by one of the participating countries. Participation in IPO will require a commitment on the part of the national delegations to promote the study of Philosophy in their home country and to organize a national competition in Philosophy.
The IPO is open to pupils from every country in the world who are enrolled in high school, either at the time of the competition, or, in countries where the school year ends in December in the year before, or earlier than May the same year, even if they are enrolled at a university at the time of the IPO.
The maximum age of a pupil is 20.
The National Organizing Committee of the host country may decide to adopt a leading theme of the Olympiad. Such a theme, however, will be used only for the series of lectures and workshops offered to the participants and should not be reflected in the selection of contest topics. The contest topics should reflect a variety of philosophical disciplines.
Each country can participate with one or two pupils, with the exception of the host country, which may participate with a maximum of 10 pupils.
The selection of the pupils who will participate in an IPO is made after competitions organized at the national level; but in exceptional cases other methods may be followed subject to the approval of the Steering Board. These national competitions should be organized by, or under the auspices of, a national philosophical society which is a member of FISP. If a national society does not exist or if, though it exists, it is not willing to organize the national Olympiads, or if another method has been pursued in the past, other procedures may be followed, but in all cases these procedures are subject to the approval of the Steering Board of the IPOs.
Format.
a) Before March 1 of the year of the competition, each delegation leader is expected to send one proposal of a topic to the Secretary General of FISP. This proposal (a short quotation – not longer than five lines – or a question) must be submitted in at least one of the IPO languages and it must include the correct source. These proposals will be circulated among the FISP members of the Steering Board, who will select four topics from among those sent and/or other topics of their choice. The topics selected will be printed in all four IPO languages.
They will be provided with the sources according to academic rules. Quotations will be provided in the best available translation, and with bibliographic data according to academic standards. If no good translation(s) is (are) available, the Secretary General of FISP will provide (a) new translation(s), mentioning the translator(s) by name.
b) Writing the Essays
I. Every student writes an essay on one of the four topics given to them.
II. The essay must be written in one of the following languages: English, German, French, Spanish; however, it must not be written in the official language(s) of the student’s state (e.g., a German does not write in German).
The only aid that may be used during the students´ essay-writing are bi-lingual dictionaries in the pupils´ own language and one of the official IPO languages (English/German/French/Spanish), and mono-lingual dictionaries in one of the official IPO languages. Such dictionaries must be in paper versions, not in any electronic format.
III. The time of writing is 4 hours.
IV. The names of the authors of all essays are encoded and not known to the assessors until the final ranking is fixed.
c) Grading the essays
I. The criteria of evaluation are: relevance to the topic, philosophical understanding of the topic, persuasive power of argumentation, coherence, and originality.
II. Each assessor gives his or her marks on a scale of 1 to 10 points, from 7 points upwards using intervals of .5.
III. At the first stage of the grading each essay is marked by four assessors. If there are more than 3 points of difference among the individual marks, a fifth assessor will be appointed. At the end of the first stage all the essays which have received an average grade of at least 7 points are selected for the second stage.
IV. At the second stage each remaining essay is marked by two additional assessors.
The average mark of an essay is calculated on the basis of all the marks it has received – both the marks of the assessors at the first stage and the marks of the two assessors at the second stage. At the end of the second stage the Jury of the IPO selects as many of the best essays as it wishes for consideration in the third stage.
V. At the third stage the Steering Board will decide on the distribution or prizes.
Awards.
Awards are symbolic “medals”: golden, silver, and bronze, and honorable mention. The Steering Committee may grant more than one medal in each category.