Thanks to a grant from the UPSHER Institute for Civic Education, Eastern Michigan University will be participating in the Ethics Bowl for the first time at the collegiate level in November. The Ethics Bowl is a tournament put on by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics that encourages students to examine and discuss different ethical dilemmas in a debate style setting.
Students participating in the Ethics Bowl will be presented with a case and will work with a team to analyze it in different ethical frameworks. The cases cover a wide range of topics, with past conversations revolving around banned books, COVID-19 relief, health insurance, and more. Then, in competition, the students will be asked a series of questions by the moderator and will discuss said questions with another competing team.
The structure is similar to that of a mock trial or a debate team competition. However, a key difference lies in the content of the tournament- neither team is arguing for or against a certain side. They are all coming together collectively to discuss a topic and its ethical implications.
“The goal of an Ethics Bowl round is to move closer to the truth of some ethical issue,” Professor Peter Higgins said, one of this year’s coaches. “They’re really working together to come to the best answer, rather than being pitted against each other in an opposing or adversarial way.”
This means that while there is technically a winner and loser, the point of the Ethics Bowl is instead to encourage a unique way of looking at, and interpreting, different situations.
Not having the competitive aspect is something that appealed to current Ethics Bowl participant Aleksei Alward. Alward is majoring in philosophy, and is the vice president of the Philosophy Club. After being recruited by Kristopher Phillips, professor of Philosophy and co-coach alongside Higgins, Alward became intrigued by the unique and less aggressive format.
“I haven't done speech and debate in the past because of the combative aspect of it, it wasn’t appealing to me. I liked when [Phillips] explained that it wasn't as combative, and it's more genuinely about adding on and having constructive critique," Alward said.
“It is still a competition, but they're not scored by who proved the other teams wrong,” said Higgins. “They are scored on the quality of the contribution they make to having a productive, thoughtful, civil discussion that generates new and valuable insights about ethical controversies,” Higgins said.
Those interested in joining the Ethics Bowl team can contact Higgins at phiggins1@emich.edu.
