Submission Guidelines
Contributing to Philosophical Popcorn
Philosophical Popcorn is a new publication dedicated to bringing philosophy to the public, and fostering thoughtfulness on the awesome publishing platform Medium.
A philosophical piece can bring a lot to its readers. It challenges our usual ways of living; it leads us to unfamiliar perspectives to see the world. Most important of all, it guides us to make more informed, if not better (whatever it means), choices in life.
It seems that philosophy publications on Medium are scarce, and this is the reason I started this publication. To gather the resources, to foster a community, and to bring philosophy to the public. If you share the same vision, we welcome you to submit your articles to become part of the mission.
The following guidelines explain what is expected:
What makes a philosophical piece?
It seems improbable to set precise criteria for what we are looking for. Here is a rough guide of what makes a good fit for us. However, this is not a checklist. You do not need to compare your work with it — we tend to be flexible.
One crucial aspect of philosophy is that it has to be grounded on reasons. We welcome diverse types of articles: you may share your original viewpoint by presenting a philosophical argument, comment, explain, and summarisation of existing philosophical knowledge.
We expect opinions to be supported by reasons. If your stance is “gay marriage should be made legal”, we welcome you to supplement your point with personal experience or emotional appeals, but after all what supports the stance should be a logically, well-informed argument.
It is highly encouraged, though not absolutely necessary, for you to back up your points with the work of other philosophers. It is extremely likely some philosophers have thought about issues related to your argument. It’s the writers’ responsibility to introduce the readers the intellectual background of the matter, including potential opposition to your points.
Entertain & Inspire
This is not an academic journal on Medium. We are looking for pieces that readers will have pleasure reading, and that inspire. Here are some good pieces we look highly too, and strive to spread influence alike:
By Ryan Holiday
By Charles Horn
On Style
Be creative! We accept pieces in virtually any forms: dialogue, fiction, joke, article, or even comics…
It is important cite your referenced sources. Adding a hyperlink to the source will do.
On Stance
We do not censor your stance, regardless how controversial your viewpoint is. As long as your argument is well thought and articulated — we will accept your submission.
On Difficulty
Philosophical Popcorn aims to bring philosophy to the public. Which means, your submission should assume the readers have no extensive training in philosophy. We understand often it is hard to strike a balance between depth of argument and readability. For instance, should you supply the definition for the term “utilitarianism”? Due to the complexity of this issue, we are leaving this matter for the writers to decide. Two rules of thumb apply, nevertheless: 1) Try to make your piece as simple and readable as possible. 2) If you want to elucidate specialised and complex concepts, please do so in a way that a person who has completed an introductory course in philosophy would understand (That’s our bottom line, try to make it understandable for any educated layperson).
Practical Matters
Response Time
Typically, we will publish your piece within 48 hours if we deem it suitable.
Drafts vs Published Articles
We prefer unpublished, final drafts. But we will accept published articles as well.
Long-Term Relationship
We will add you as a writer as soon as we accepted your first piece. You can submit via the Medium system thereon.
As this is a new publication, we are looking for contributors to grow with us. We are looking for editors: please feel free to contact us if you are interested.
Sign yourself up as a writer here (we’ll approve your request within 48 hours), and submit your draft:
Alternative, submit your draft link here.
