2023年John Locke论文竞赛题目解析

PART ONE

John Locke 开题

昨天，早早通知说要1月份出题的John Locke，终于在1月的最后一天履行了诺言。作为社科类最具含金量的论文竞赛之一，今年的题目难度创历史新高，堪称史诗级。

往年的John Locke的题目，相对都是选择在对于高中生比较熟悉的议题领域。而今年的题目，不仅话题变得更感敏感和政治色彩化，对于学生的知识体系和思考深度的要求，也近乎达到了完全超出高中生的水平。

机构的John Locke教研团队的老师，经过反复的审核确认，确保对于题目的理解和翻译准确后，方便大家阅读。机构教研团队也专门针对相对难度较大的问题，添加了解释，还补充了相关的延申阅读的材料，希望帮助感兴趣的同学更好的理解题意。

希望在大家决定跃跃欲试开始挑战日益强调思辨性的John Locke比赛前，认真的思考和理解这些问题背后的问题。机构也将邀请专业老师直播对各个方向的题目做深度的解析，帮助同学们理解课题选择真正合适的方向。

希望参赛的同学们真正把这几个月的比赛准备，变成真正的思维盛宴！

2023 John Locke 题目

1、Philosophy哲学类

Q1. A team of scientists wants to discover how many genders there are. How should they proceed?

一组科学家希望探索到底有多少种性别。他们该怎么做？

Q2. In what sense are you the same person today that you were when you were ten?

在何种意义下，现在的你和当年十岁时候的你，是同一个人？

Q3. Is tax theft?

税收是偷盗吗？

2、Politics政治类

Q1. Do the results of elections express the will of the people?

选举结果是否能够反映民意？

Q2. If China becomes the leading superpower, what would that mean for the people who live there? What would it mean for everyone else?

如果中国成为世界第一的超级大国，对于生活在中国的人意味着什么？对于其他地方的人又意味着什么？

Q3. What might account for the different levels of political corruption in your own country and your country's nearest neighbour?

在你的国家，是什么造成不同程度的政治腐败？在你国家最临近的国家呢？

3、Economics经济类

Q1. A government funds its own expenditure by taxing its population. Suppose, instead, it relied solely on money newly created by the central bank? What would be the advantages and/or disadvantages?

一个政府通常通过向人民征税来为自己的支出提供资金。但如果它只依赖中央银行印出的新钱来支付财政开支的话，将会怎么样？这样做的好处和坏处是什么？

Q2. In his thought experiment, the Iowa Car Crop, David Friedman tries to show that growing wheat is, in an important sense, just another 'technology' we can use for manufacturing cars, and in some circumstances a much more efficient one.

If international trade is thus a way of using less valuable inputs to produce more valuable outputs, why would governments impose trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas, thereby forcing producers to be more wasteful and less efficient?

在大卫弗里德曼的“爱荷华汽车和粮食”思想实验中，他尝试展示，从某一个角度来说，种植小麦其实只是我们用来制造汽车的另一种“技术”。甚至一定程度上来说，这种技术还要更加高效。

如果国际贸易可以用价值更低的产品（如小麦）去换取价值更高的产品（如汽车），那为什么政府要强加关税、限额等各种贸易壁垒，从而迫使生产者变得更加浪费和低效（如因为限额，生产出来的小麦无法换取更多的汽车而造成浪费）？

【解释一下，这个Freedman的意思是，如果我们通过种植小麦，并用小麦去和日本做贸易以交换汽车，相比于自己制造汽车来说，这种国际贸易的方法可以更高效的获得汽车】

【关于Iowa Car Crop的具体内容，可以相关参考文章：】

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/economics-at-its-best-the-story-of-the-iowa-car-crop/

Q3. What would happen if we banned billionaires?

如果禁止亿万富豪的产生，会发生什么？

4、History历史类

Q1. How much richer or poorer are the British today than they would have been without the effects of British colonialism?

如果没有当年的殖民政策，今天的英国会变得更穷还是更富？会比现在富多少或者穷多少呢？

Q2. Which has a bigger effect on history: the plans of the powerful or their mistakes?

有权力者的计划和他们所犯的错误，哪个对历史有更大的影响？

Q3. Which characteristics distinguish successful movements for social change from unsuccessful ones?

哪些特质可以用来区分成功的和不成功的社会变革运动？

5、Psychology心理学类

Q1. Can happiness be measured?

幸福可以被测量吗？

Q2. In surveys conducted in the United States, significantly more than half the respondents reported that they believed themselves to be more attractive than the median person in their country. How might we account for this?

在美国的一些调查中发现，超过一半的受访者认为他们比自己国家的中位数人群要更加有吸引力。我们应该如何解释这个现象？

Q3. Are beliefs voluntary?

信仰是自主选择的吗？

【这个问题是心理学和哲学的经典问题，如希望深入理解这道题，可参考斯坦福大学的相关文章：】

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-belief/

6、Theology神学类

Q1. What distinguishes a small religion from a large cult?

如何区分一个小型宗教和一个大型邪教？

Q2. If you cannot persuade your intelligent, sympathetic friends to embrace your religious belief system, do you have enough reason to believe what you believe?

如果你无法说服你聪明又有同情心的朋友来接受你的信仰体系，你还有足够的理由去相信你自己的信仰吗？

Q3. What was God doing before He created the cosmos?

上帝在创造宇宙前，祂在干什么？

7、Law法学类

Q1. Would justice be better served in the United States if more Supreme Court judges were women?

如果最高法院大法官中有更多的女性，会对美国的司法公正更有帮助吗？

【关于美国最高法院大法官制度，可以参考美国法院的相关解释文章】：

https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/about

Q2. Suppose that you were contemplating, in violation of the rules of this competition, submitting an essay written for you by artificial intelligence. What would be the difference between such an act and ordinary attempted theft?

假如你在明知违反这次比赛规则的情况下，提交了一篇让人工智能帮你写的文章。这种行为和普通的偷窃未遂，有什么区别？

Q3. Are there too many laws?

是不是法律有点太多了？

JUNIOR prize初中组

Q1. Is safety more important than fun?

安全感比趣味性更重要吗？

Q2. If you had $10 billion to spend on making the world better, how would you spend it?

如果你有100亿美金可以用来让世界变得更美好，你想要怎么花这笔钱？

Q3. What, if anything, do your parents owe you?

你的父母欠你什么吗？

Q4. What is something important, about which nearly everybody is wrong?

有没有哪件事情，它本身很重要，但几乎所有人都对它理解错误？