The Journal of Philosophy invites submissions for The Isaac Levi Prize, an award of $10,000 given every three years for an article submitted to The Journal of Philosophy on the areas and themes that interested Isaac Levi. Those themes include decision theory, epistemology, formal epistemology, pragmatism (especially as developed by Peirce), philosophy of science, social choice theory, ethics of controversy, and the relevance of philosophy in these areas to public life. In addition to the Prize, the winning article will receive publication in The Journal of Philosophy.
The competition is open to graduate students and scholars who have received their Ph.D. within the past two years from anywhere in the world. Manuscripts should be prepared according to our author guidelines, as described in our Memo to Authors. Please label your paper as a submission to the Isaac Levi Prize and include verification of your eligibility, such as a letter from your department or a link to your profile on your department’s website. Note: The next submission deadline is May 1st, 2027.
Isaac Levi (June 30, 1930-December 25, 2018) was an American philosopher and the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. Levi made a name for himself with his first book, Gambling with Truth (A. Knopf 1967, MIT Press 1973). In the text Levi offered a decision theoretic reconstruction of epistemology with a close eye toward the classical pragmatist philosophers like William James and Charles Sanders Peirce. Levi was known for his work in belief revision and imprecise probability. Particularly significant among his later books are The Enterprise of Knowledge (MIT Press 1980) and Hard Choices (Cambridge University Press 1986). Levi was one of several doctoral students of Ernest Nagel who were influential in American post-war philosophy, including Morton White, Patrick Suppes, Henry E. Kyburg, Jr., and Frederic Schick. Levi also served as doctoral advisor to prominent formal philosophers, including Teddy Seidenfeld, Horacio Arló-Costa, and Eleonora Cresto. The author of seven books and dozens of articles, Levi received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1957 and taught there from 1970 until his retirement in 2007. His full bibliography is available for download as a PDF by clicking here.
For more on Levi's work, please read "A Retrospective on Isaac Levi: June 30, 1930 - December 25, 2018" by Teddy Seidenfeld (reprinted with permission from Elsevier).
Prize Committee Members: Akeel Bilgrami, Jessica Collins, Haim Gaifman, Philip Kitcher, Cheryl Misak, Carol Rovane, Nils-Eric Sahlin, Teddy Seidenfeld, Scott J. Shapiro, Gila Sher, Rush Stewart, Anubav Vasudevan, and Achille C. Varzi.
The committee will have the right not to make an award in any given year if, in its opinion, there is no submission of a sufficiently high quality.
Prizewinners
2020: "Hempel's Raven Revisited" by Andrew Bollhagen (UC San Diego) - press release
2021: "Questions in Action" by Daniel Hoek (Virginia Tech) - press release
2022: None selected
2023: "Optimization and Beyond" by Akshath Jitendranath (Paris School of Economics) - press release
2024: "Deference Principles for Imprecise Credences" by Giacomo Molinari (University of Bristol) - press release