STUDENT VOICE - Written by: Hannah Ellsworth, first-year Journalism student
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On October 17 the Philosophy Department at Trent gathered to celebrate Gilbert Enenajor, recipient of the 2012/13 James Middleton Essay Prize in Humanities for his paper An Epistemological Assessment of Moral Worth in Kant's Moral Theory. The prize is awarded annually for the purpose of encouraging the idea that university is a place for developing knowledge, while providing a form of financial assistance for students specifically involved within the study of the humanities.

Gilbert Enenajor is a fourth-year student majoring in both Psychology and Philosophy with an emphasis in applied ethics. His fascination with the mind began when he was a child, around the age of four. He said, “If you can understand the mind, you can understand everything. There are no problems with the world – the only problems are people problems. If you can understand people, then you can understand the problems. If you understand the problems, then you can solve them.”

Mr. Enenajor’s essay explores Immanuel Kant’s theory of morality, while expanding upon the theory with his own ideas. He explained that Kant’s categorical imperative states that an action is moral so long as it can be universalized. Kant outlined four scenarios for the theory of morality. One of these scenarios states that a moral action that is a result of duty can still be immoral because it is done for selfish reasons. From this, Mr. Enenajor developed a fifth scenario, which is the idea of moral potential.

“You can commit an act that you know, because it lacks inclination, is not immoral, but because you can’t discount that it has inclination, is not moral. It’s in what I call the realm of moral potential. It’s not moral, it’s not immoral; you don’t know what it is. But you can know that you don’t know what it is. So I simply added on a fifth possibility for moral scenario that Kant didn’t describe in his grounding for the metaphysics of morals, but that I was able to derive from the metaphysics of morals,” Mr. Enenajor explained.

Mr. Enenajor studied Immanuel Kant with Professor Kate Norlock last year, and wrote his original draft of the essay that would later win him the Middleton prize for her class. After receiving an encouraging grade for his essay, he submitted it to several conferences. The essay was accepted to two conferences, including the Pacific University Philosophy Conference in Portland. The paper was subsequently published by their online journal Res Cogitans.

Taken aback by the reaction to his work, Mr. Enenajor expanded his original essay from under 2000 words to over 3000 for the James Middleton essay prize. The entire process of writing the essay from its early drafts to the final composition took place over a period of eight months.

James Middleton, the donor of the prize and one of the judges of the competition, described the essay as “one of the most original essays we have seen in the nine years of the prizes, challenging a difficult logical question in Kant.” 

Mr. Enenajor said that he is humbled by the award, and illustrated the impact that being published can have in an academic community: “There have been some people who after the fact have gone on to submit papers and have them published, so it’s created a culture at Trent University, especially in the Philosophy department, that we are capable and that we are dedicated to what we’re studying. So it hasn’t just benefited me, I think it’s benefited a lot of people at Trent Philosophy.”

He cited their Prof. Norlock as a catalyst for his and other students’ success, creating an environment within the Philosophy department that encourages students to explore their potential. “She is invested in us more than we are in ourselves, and because of that, she sees that we are capable of more than we think we’re capable of. It is that type of mentorship and professorship that I find to be unique about Trent, and what makes the Philosophy Department such a rich place to learn and grow."

To learn more about the James Middleton Essay Prize in Humanities, and to read Gilbert Enenajor’s essay An Epistemological Assessment of Moral Worth in Kant's Moral Theory, visit https://www.trentu.ca/dean/prizes.php