The Erasmus Competition
Neil Croally
The Erasmus competition has been running for several years now. Thirteen schools take part in this inter-school competition, and it runs as follows. The host school – this year, Charterhouse – approaches a prominent academic in the humanities and asks her to set a theme to provide a bibliography. This part of the competition is normally over by May. The theme and the bibliography are made available to any Year 11 or Remove boy who wishes to take part. A date is agreed for the examination to take place in mid-September. The examination itself lasts three hours; candidates write one essay from a choice of
two questions. I think that this is a properly challenging test.
The College entered for the first time this year. The theme was Inequality , set by Professor Jonathan Wolff of UCL, one of this country’s preeminent political philosophers. Eleven of our boys entered, and the four best essays – the ones sent to Professor Wolff – are printed below. The two essay questions chosen by Professor Wolff will be clear from the titles. It is worth knowing as well that Will Cook’s essay won third prize. The theme this year is Consciousness and the Brain , and the judge is Professor David Papineau of King’s College, London.
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