1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology is a constantly-growing collection of original essays on important philosophical topics, figures, and traditions. These essays are introductions rather than argumentative articles, although arguments or preferred positions on issues are sometimes suggested.
We’re always looking for authors to contribute. If you’re interested in contributing a 1000-word essay (or essays) on a philosophical topic that interests you and that you think would interest our readers, please email us. Please either send us your full essay for review, or an essay proposal, or any other inquiries regarding the appropriateness and desirability of your topic and approach.
Topics
An incomplete list of desired essays is available here. We are especially interested in essays on topics frequently addressed in introductory courses, as well as topics that are difficult to cover in introductory courses because the relevant literature is difficult for beginning students. We especially welcome material addressing under-represented philosophical traditions, including global philosophy, philosophy of race, LGBTQIA issues, and more, as well as submissions on all topics by women and members of other under-represented populations.
We are open to the possibility of multiple essays on the same topic since there are always many useful ways of addressing any philosophical issue.
A Call for Papers flyer is available here. A graphic of that Call is below, suitable for saving and sharing. A call for essays to help address current events has been posted: please share it. Also, a “teaching units” page has been created.
Style
The style of essays published by 1000-Word Philosophy is best seen by reading the essays themselves. We strive to publish essays that are radically concise, extremely clear, well-organized and inviting. Each serves as an ideal introduction to the problem, question, issue or figure. Essays should be clear and understandable to readers with little to no philosophical background. We hope the essays serve as a springboard for informed discussion and debate and a basis for further learning on the topics.
Typical features of our essays include:
- a short, inviting introduction;
- a “what this essay is about” statement at the end of the introduction;
- labeled sections;
- short paragraphs that focus on only one topic: this is especially important for online publications;
- clear and direct explanation: never too little, never too much;
- clear, simple, and direct language and word choices;
- vivid examples to illustrate abstract points;
- rigorous editing to eliminate any needless words, sentence and sections;
- few to no rhetorical questions: explain the issues and make statements instead;
- at best, merely suggestive conclusions on issues, presented in tentative, discussion-provoking ways;
- an understanding of our intended audience—people who lack prior understanding of the issues of the article—and how they are are likely to approach issues, and so a presentation that works for them: article drafts should be “tested” with students and general readers, and revised in light of their feedback, before submission.
The 1000 word wordcount is of only the main text and headings: it does not include the notes or other text.
Submitting to 1000-Word Philosophy is not like submitting to a traditional academic journal. For article drafts or proposals that are promising, the typical review and editing-to-publication process involves feedback at many stages from multiple editors and sometimes external reviewers. These reviews address everything from the overall structure of the essay to the presentation of the philosophical issues to exact word choices. The editors seek to ensure that our essays meet high scholarly standards and are readily accessible to readers without any background in the topics. Accordingly, to meet our intended audiences, contributors with promising submissions can expect far more fine-grained and interactive feedback than at academic journals. This careful and meticulous process, however, results in very strong introductory essays that are understandable, interesting, and beneficial to nearly any reader.
Template
A submission template is available in Word and Google Docs. Please do not submit PDF files, as those are difficult to review. Essay submissions via links to a cloud-based platform, such as Google Docs, or Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive are welcome, especially if the file can be edited and commented on through that cloud service.
Please format your submission so it, as close as you can, resembles a published article at 1000-Word Philosophy. Please use 12-point Times New Roman font for all text, including any footnotes, left-justify or left-align all the text, single-space your submission, line break (not tab) for each paragraph (there are no tab indents online), use the standard footnote feature (not manually created notes), and add links to the references in the manner 1000-Word Philosophy essays typically have links: please examine recent essays to identify that style.
Acceptance Rate
We publish approximately 10% of essays that are submitted, usually after weeks of substantial revisions and editing.
1000-Word Philosophy will only consider article submissions by philosophy instructors or advanced graduate students in philosophy who have extensive experience teaching philosophy. While the Editors wish to encourage philosophical writers at all stages, they have found that it is nearly impossible for someone to develop a successful essay for 1000-Word Philosophy if they do not have teaching experience and so, for efficiency, we have this requirement for submissions.
Essays published at 1000-Word Philosophy are peer-reviewed publications.
Why Contribute?
1000-Word Philosophy has an extensive readership. In 2022, we had over 1,030,755 views and 663,361 visitors, and we are working to increase those numbers so your essay will be highly visible to a global readership. Some essays have over 100,000 views because, in part, they are used in courses. We are trying to identify better ways to track the use of the essays in teaching, and as sources for online discussion, and publicize these numbers. We are planning to compile the essays into a living – that is, constantly developing – open-access and open-source print collection that will be ideal for classroom use, as well as general readers.
For further discussion of why you might want to contribute an essay to this project, see this discussion at the Philosophers’ Cacoon blog. For more information on our reviewing process, see this article at the APA Blog.
If you are interested in developing ideal, high-impact materials for both teaching and public philosophy, then 1000-Word Philosophy is for you.
A 2022 End of Year Report is available here.
If you would like to provide financial support for this project, you may donate here. Thank you!
All essays are original contributions to 1000-Word Philosophy and are published with permission from the authors. Contributing authors retain any and all copyright interests in their individual works. 1000-Word Philosophy holds the copyright to the collective work. Do not reproduce this work in part or in full without appropriate attribution.
1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology 