Ethics Bowl (PHIL 560.001)

The Ethics Bowl class provides students with a unique opportunity to practice applying the moral theories and argumentation principles that they learn in their ethics classes. The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) combines the excitement and fun of a competitive tournament with a valuable educational experience. We will receive 15 case studies around the second week of classes, with ethical issues in a number of practical contexts, including engineering, law, medicine, personal relationships, school and politics, both nationally and internationally. During the course the students will prepare these cases. 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.) or global issues (e.g. the impact of globalization, global warming, the environment). Preparing responses to these questions involves a great deal of research, writing and oral presentation.

In the Fall a team is selected from those registered in the course to compete in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ethics Bowl. In the Spring, new cases are provided and the team prepares for National Competition on March 1st. Also the same team or a second team prepares for the Bioethics Bowl, held at Duke, March 24-25. The cases for this competition are different from the Ethics Bowl. Students in the class are either presenters or researchers. Researchers play a vital role, as they must have a thorough understanding of every aspect of the cases and provide in depth research for the presenters. For more information about the Ethics Bowl, check out information on the Parr Center website: parrcenter.unc.edu or simply google Ethics Bowl.

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