BHS Philosophy Club at the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl

Members of the BHS Philosophy Club traveled to Marist College to observe the Northeast Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. The students were able to observe colleges and universities such as Dartmouth, SUNY Albany, Buffalo State, Union, Manhattan, and the hosting school (Marist) compete against each other in a series of debates and really enjoyed the experience as well as gaining valuable strategies to use in the high school ethics bowl competitions that they will be competing in this Spring. Union College and Dartmouth College were the top two teams from the Northeast Regional and they will move on to the National Competition held in March in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, each team receives a set of cases which raise issues in practical and professional ethics in advance of the competition and prepare an analysis of each case. (see link: Regional Cases) At the competition, a moderator poses questions, based on a case taken from this set, to teams of three to five students. A panel of judges may question the teams for further justifications and then evaluates their answers. Rating criteria are intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness.