The North American Kant Society is pleased to announce the 14th annual Wilfrid Sellars Essay Prize competition, generously sponsored by Kantian Review. This prize will be awarded for the best essay on any topic that demonstrates the continuing relevance of Kant’s philosophy. Essays must be single-authored, previously unpublished (work under review or forthcoming will be considered), and cannot exceed 8,000 words in length (including notes and works cited/bibliography). Submissions not within this word limit may not be considered.

The intention behind the Sellars Prize is to help promote original Kantian or Kant-inspired philosophical work of scholars in the early stages of their careers. Submissions will be blind-reviewed and judged by members of a review committee drawn from the NAKS Executive Committee and Board of Trustees.

The deadline for submission is October 8th, 2025.  You may submit your article in this form.

Eligibility rules:

Please read the Eligibility Rules carefully.  Violating them will result in disqualification.

1) The essay must be written in English, single-authored, unpublished, and not have been previously submitted for the Sellars Prize.   First appearing online in 2024 is sufficient to qualify.

2) Only one submission per author is allowed. 

3) You may not submit the same paper for both the NAKS Wilfred Sellars Prize and the UK Kant Society Young Scholars Prize.   (Submitting different papers is allowed.)  Kantian Review sponsors both prizes, and they and we would like to avoid both awards going to the same person for the same paper in order to extend the impact of the prizes.

4) ‘Junior’ is defined here as having been officially awarded the PhD by the prize submission deadline and being 5 years or fewer from receipt of the Ph.D. on the prize submission deadline.

5) Authors must be members of NAKS at the time of submission and during the period when the submissions are under review.

6) Authors cannot be past recipients of the Wilfrid Sellars Essay Prize.

7) Current members of the Board of Trustees, NAKS Executive Committee, and sub-committees are ineligible.

Please ensure that you are eligible before submitting an essay!

The Wilfrid Sellars Junior Essay prize winner we will awarded $300.   The prize is generously funded by Kantian Review.  Additionally, the prize winner will have the presumptive offer of publication in Kantian Review (assuming approval by the editors). The committee reserves the right not to award a prize, if in its judgment none is warranted.

Decision Process: Submissions will be blind-reviewed and judged by members of a review committee drawn from the NAKS Executive Committee, members of the Board of Trustees, and previous Sellars Prize winners. The essays are assigned to judges based, to the extent possible, on their expertise. Each essay is initially reviewed by at least two judges. The submissions will be judged on originality of its thesis, impact or significance within its subfield, strength of the argument, textual evidence in support of its thesis, and its clarity. The award committee reserves the right not to award a prize winner if in its judgment no prize is warranted and does not provide feedback on submissions.