In essence, ethics bowl is a competitive discussion. Teams compete to give the most accurate, comprehensive, clear, and complete answer to the match question. Each two-match round involves:
- presenting an initial take on the question at hand (10 mins.)
- defending it against the opposing team’s critique (5 mins.)
- responding to questions from a three-judge panel composed of academic and non-academic professionals (10 mins.)
The questions focus on one or more aspects of a case drawn from a set of fifteen cases that teams have worked with for roughly two months prior to competition.
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) is the arm of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) responsible for organizing regional and national competition each year. Regionals are held around the U.S., and colleges and universities self-select which regional they’ll participate in. If a school wins a bid to nationals due to their regional performance, they head to the annual APPE conference/workshop to compete with other bid winners. The University of Nebraska has sent teams to national competition twice since the inception of the UNL Ethics Bowl Team in 2011.
Of course, as the saying goes, ‘Winning isn’t everything.’ That certainly rings true in the case of participating in ethics bowl. Preparing for competition significantly develops critical and moral reasoning skills as well as their abilities to speak and reason publicly with an interested community like the following:
- sharpen their intellect
- develop their interrogative and contrarian dispositions,
- deepen their interest in exploring and analyzing complex situations and concepts as well as their ability to do so
- cultivate the virtue of epistemic humility
Hence, win or lose in competition participants efforts are meaningfully rewarded.
We can always use more Husker excellence!
Are you or someone you know ready to represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as a member of the UNL Ethics Bowl Team? Please contact Director, Adam R. Thompson (art@unl.edu)
