Make-Sense-of-Things-Monday Philosophy contest for +3.5SBD

Hey there steemians!

After running my best author/post contest a few weeks back, I had a re-think due to the fact I spend about a week's worth of my author rewards on it, and that I actually have specific kinds of content/writing/thinking that I'd like to encourage.

On the basis of a lot of thought, about 6 pints of beer (Melbourne has great beer), and at least one other steemian basically telling me to stop complaining and do something constructive, this is what I came up with:

The Inagural, Make-Sense-of-Things-Monday, Steemit philosophy contest!

(I was going to go with Philoso-Friday, but didn't quite make the deadline. Maybe next time).

This is a philosophy contest, so what I'm looking for is people doing philosophy; trying to answer questions like: What is moral or immoral, and why? What is real or not? What does it mean to know something? What is valuable or important - does this just apply to you, or should more people think this way? How should society work? What is 'fairness' or 'justice'? How does some book or movie or game explore or illustrate some philosophical concept? Who was a bigger tool, Socrates or Confucius?

You get the idea.

By 'doing philosophy', I don't mean telling me what you believe in terms of your "personal philosophy". I want to know why you believe it, and why a reasonable person (whatever that is) should accept it. There's no need to pander to my values either. If you think my entire framing of philosophy (or anything else I've ever posted) is wrong, tell me why! You know that university lecturer or teacher who marks you down just because you disagree with them? That's not who I am.

If you aren't sure where to start, I've listed some free philosophy resources and books here.

How to enter:

Create a post on something about philosophy, and post the link to it in a comment below.

Conditions of entry:

Your entry must be no more than 1 day older than this post.
You must have a reputation of 48 or under at the time of entering.
You must upvote at least one other entry.
Your entry post must have both the #philosophy and #newbieresteemday tags.
If your account is worth a massive amount of Steem/SP/SBD, you can still enter, but I might decide to donate your prize to someone who needs the money more than either of us.

How to win:

The winner will be the person with the highest number of votes (not the highest pending payout) on their entry comment at the time of this post paying out in seven days time.
Second place will be the person with the second highest number of votes (not the highest pending payout) on their entry comment at the time of this post paying out in seven days time.
At least two additional prizes for best overall philosophical argument and most scholarly entry (you know, with references and research and all that) will be decided by me. These might be people who won the popular vote, but they might not be either.
I reserve the right to award anything extra for whatever reasons I like.

What you can win:

Winner gets 1.5 SBD
Second place gets 1 SBD
Best overall philosophical argument gets 0.5 SBD
Most scholarly effort gets 0.5 SBD
In addition, I am willing to sponsor all winners into the Hive account@steembasicincome program - check it out here.

If this post makes more than expected (or any profit at all over what I'm spending on prizes), expect bonuses.

Note: I am a compulsive plagiarism checker. If I catch anyone cheating, they will regret it.

After this post has paid out, I'll tally up the votes on entries, make my decisions and send the prizes out a day or two after (depending on how busy I am next Monday/Tuesday).

Finally, if you are a newbie and are Australian or an Aussie ex-pat, residing in Australia, or have some other Australian connection, you should consider applying to join #TeamAustralia for fun, meetups, mentoring, support, and the best discord channel in existence. For more on this, including how to join, see Hive account@choogirl's excellent post here.