Dear friends,

We nominated and voted and voted and finally, it is time to celebrate! First of all, celebrate the winners, but also celebrate this amazing community. We carved out a little corner on the internet for a genuinely helpful community focussed on academic philosophy; and this is a very unique place. None of this would be possible without the panelists, the commenters, the questioners or the lurkers who take joy in reading great answers. Let's not forget my co-mods, who all invest a considerable amount of time reviewing answers, too!

In this thread, I am excited to announce the winners of this contest. The winners already got the very special Owl of Minerva award, wherever possible on the nominated content. The awards include one month free reddit premium which, I guess, gives you a month without ads and another goodie or two. Congratulations! Without further ado, I give you the winners - in the order of votes received for the first two categories, and alphabetically for the last. Full disclosure: The laudatios are mostly copy-pasted from the nominations.

Best Question of 2021

• u/Joeman720 asked an interesting question about how we should engage with philosophical texts: How can we avoid "falling for" ostensibly good arguments when there are other arguments to the contrary that seem at least as good? It turns out that engaging with a text often involves "accepting" the author's premises at least temporarily for the sake of argument. I distinctly remember experiencing this sort of thing when reading Berkeley for the first time—it was the first time I seriously doubted physicalism. On a more abstract level, this kind of question seems like it motivates more questions in epistemology of disagreement. https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/lgbgqz/how_can_i_read_philosophers_without_getting_roped/ (nominated by u/Quaerendo_Invenietis)
• u/Jonathan_Livengood got a wonderful discussion started by asking what paper 'backfired' on others; backfiring meaning one comes away believing more in the criticized position than before reading the paper: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/lquvmq/what_paper_or_other_work_of_philosophy_backfired/
• If nothing else, 2021 finally gave us the highly anticipated (at least on this forum) philsurvey results. Prior to that, u/SalmonApplecream asked a much more interesting question: How come some positions are widely accepted in the profession? (extra points for a great discussion in the comments). https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/m9oiys/why_are_some_positions_in_philosophy_very_heavily/
• u/_civilized_ asked a question that popped up every now and then since: Is there merit to meritocracy? Or rather, should the well-eduated really have an equal vote to the less educated? Great question with great answers: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/kt24i8/should_a_person_who_has_a_phd_in_political/
• Maybe I'm biased, but questions about science and philosophy of science are always interesting. This one by u/OvenInteresting1991 stands out to me because it is very well posed - outlining some considerations while still being clearly interested in the answers - and looking for evidence for scientific realism, broadly speaking: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/ppxwu0/how_can_science_be_objective_when_humans_are/

Best Answers of 2021

• u/wokeupabug has one or two dozen comments worth nominating here, but in picking one, I'd like to nominate this wonderful, detailed, thoughtful and overall amazing two-part answer: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/8de8tm/modernism_vs_postmodernism/dxmwlyg/ Wokeupabug discusses in detail what modernism is; how it relates to postmodernism; and what the connection between the two is.
• u/rdef1984 for this wonderful answer with many resources on whether identity can be treated as a commodity in late-stage capitalism: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/qq7nso/can_we_treat_identity_in_the_late_stage/hjzkys5/
• u/egbertus_b calmly dissecting the logic errors committed by a famous atheist youtuber: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/pwvb9n/if_someone_wanted_to_improve_their_thinking_why/hekru3v/?context=3 (the whole exchange really, but that comment is outstanding)
• u/shitgenstein very clearly and admirably shortly discusses structuralism, post-structuralism and the differences between them: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/q80sf0/what_exactly_is_structuralism_and/hgme67n/
• Slight cheat but u/drinka40tonight has given this answer before, this is just the newest iteration. They discuss the value of a philosophy degree in great detail, with a focus on the facts: https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/rsyeij/need_help_defending_getting_a_philosophy_degree/hqpckai/

Outstanding Users

• u/aJrenalin - Their answers on anti-natalism have been highlighted by the nominator for being compelling and much stroner than the usual internet discourse.
• u/macewumpus. You see, i'm into philosophy of science and so is macewumpus. During the year, I tag some great answers to then nominate in this thread; and there aren't one, not two, but four awesome comments from macewumpus in my list; which means a nomination is well-deserved.
• /u/Bas_Tonissen - nominated for their always helpful and well-written answers, in particular about Kant
• u/Voltairinede - one of the most prolific commenters who is not only quick to answer, but gives answers of great quality
• u/wokeupabug - what else can be said about our Bug? Our nominator puts it so well: nominating just because they keep delivering! An impressive demonstration of both depth and breadth of knowledge regarding philosophy’s history is such a resource.

Wildcards

These are special mentions of the mod team, our chance to highlight some overlooked content that wasn't up for nomination or deserves recognition nonetheless.

• u/wokeupabug again? Yes! This comment is amazeballs! Bug discusses Hegelian dialectics with a clarity you won't find anywhere online. However much you knew about Hegel before, you will realize that you learned something by reading it!
• u/Grundlage for this nice mini-curriculum in analytic philosophy:
• My bias again, but this answer by u/macewumpus discussing theory-ladenness outlines the state of the research on how much theory is in observations
• /u/streetli for their answer on what is the point of studying criticisms of capitalism
• u/drinka40tonight gets this award for an amazing answer on a logic problem from XKCD. Yeah, we mix up with pop culture here sometimes!

And that's a wrap!

Thank you all for your continued excellence, your collegiality, your questions and answers and everything each and every one of you - the awardees as well as all users - brings to this sub. r/askphilosophy means a lot to me and it does so because of you all. <3 and *mic drop*.

P.S.: Sorry this all took so long, offline life got in the way of me finishing this up!

P.P.S: Awardees will get their Owl Icon ASAP; outstanding users will get it on a random good comment :)