VEECUBED community: The 2013 Love and Human Agency Essay Competition

ELIGIBILITY: Essays are invited from philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, economics, law, and any other academic discipline whose methods can shed light on these or related questions.

RULES AND REGULATIONS: Examples of questions an essay might address include, but are not limited to: What is love? What is it to care about something or someone? How can an understanding of love contribute to our understanding of our capacity to value? What role does caring play in free or autonomous agency? What role should love play in the theory of practical reason? What connection is there between caring and moral character? How does the capacity for love develop in infants and children? What cognitive mechanisms or abilities are necessary for the capacity to care? What can we learn about the capacities to love and care from brain disorders that compromise these capacities? What role does the capacity to care play in moral or legal responsibility? Essays must be unpublished and not accepted for publication at the time of submission, and other things being equal we prefer they not be more than 12,000 words.

PRIZE: Prizes will be awarded to three winning essays, with a top prize of $3000; they will also be considered for publication in an edited volume on love and human agency. Winnerswill be invited (travel and lodging expenses paid) to an interdisciplinary conference on love and human agency to be held at Franklin and Marshall College in Autumn, 2014, where prizes will be awarded.

HOW TO APPLY: Essays should be submitted electronically to submissions@loveandhumanagency.org no later than May 16, 2014.

DEADLINE: May 16, 2014