Ethics Bowl
The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) combines the excitement and fun of a competitive tournament with a valuable educational experience for undergraduate students. Recognized widely by educators, the IEB has received special commendation for excellence and innovation from the American Philosophical Association, and received the 2006 American Philosophical Association/Philosophy Documentation Center's 2006 prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs. The format, rules, and procedures of the IEB all have been developed to model widely acknowledged best methods of reasoning in practical and professional ethics.
On February 21, 2008, thirty-two teams, representing different colleges and universities, participated in the IEB National Championship Competition, which took place in San Antonio, in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE). The team from Clemson University (SC) emerged as the winner in a superb final match with the runner-up team from Wright State University (OH).
The thirty-two participants in the IEB National Championship Competition were the top scoring teams among teams from eighty-nine colleges and universities that competed in ten regional ethics bowls that took place throughout the United States in the fall of 2007.
Ten regional ethics bowls are again planned for the fall of 2008. Information concerning the locations, dates, and contact persons for registration for each regional ethics bowl will be posted on this web site shortly after Labor Day, 2008.
In the IEB, a moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students. Questions may concern ethical problems on wide ranging topics, such as the classroom (e.g. cheating or plagiarism), personal relationships (e.g. dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g. engineering, law, medicine), or social and political ethics (e.g. free speech, gun control, etc.) Each team receives a set of ethical issues in advance of the competition, and questions posed to teams at the competition are taken from that set. A panel of judges evaluates answers; rating criteria are intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness.
For more information, contact:
Robert F. Ladenson
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL 60616
Phone (312) 567-3474
Fax (312) 567-3016
