UNC wins ethics bowl
Online Exclusive
By: Anthony McPeek, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: University
UNC won the first Mid-Atlantic Regional Ethics Bowl on Saturday and will go on to the national championship.
The 14 participating teams from all over the East Coast argued ethical issues based on 15 cases that officials gave them a month ago. The cases covered issues ranging from free trade in Jamaica to corporate sponsorship of collegiate sports.
"It's like a debate, except with moral reasoning," said Jan Boxill, associate chairwoman of the Department of Philosophy, pointing out that the competitors used less public speaking rhetoric in their arguments than in standard debates.
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that seeks to answer the question of how one should act.
The majority of competitors are philosophy majors or minors who argued their cases through the theories of the branch's greats, such as Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill.
UNC, which hosted the competition, was one of five schools present from North Carolina.
Clemson University and Campbell University took second and third places, respectively. Both teams, along with UNC, will go on to the national championship of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in February, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas. The bowl is put on by Illinois Institute of Technology's Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions.
Judges from across campus and the community, including Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, evaluated teams on the quality of their presentation and arguments and gave them a final score.
"I'm really happy because we have such a wide range of interdisciplinary faculty and community leaders who have volunteered their Saturday," Boxill said before the event.
UNC's team consisted of 10 members, with four of them participating as alternates. Five members will go on to the championship.
Member Sonja Bell said the team practiced for the event by holding mock debates.
In the semifinal round, UNC tied with Campbell University.
Officials broke the tie and allowed UNC to advance to the final round because its team had won all three of its previous rounds, and Campbell had lost one of its matches.
The 14 participating teams from all over the East Coast argued ethical issues based on 15 cases that officials gave them a month ago. The cases covered issues ranging from free trade in Jamaica to corporate sponsorship of collegiate sports.
"It's like a debate, except with moral reasoning," said Jan Boxill, associate chairwoman of the Department of Philosophy, pointing out that the competitors used less public speaking rhetoric in their arguments than in standard debates.
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that seeks to answer the question of how one should act.
The majority of competitors are philosophy majors or minors who argued their cases through the theories of the branch's greats, such as Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill.
UNC, which hosted the competition, was one of five schools present from North Carolina.
Clemson University and Campbell University took second and third places, respectively. Both teams, along with UNC, will go on to the national championship of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in February, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas. The bowl is put on by Illinois Institute of Technology's Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions.
Judges from across campus and the community, including Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, evaluated teams on the quality of their presentation and arguments and gave them a final score.
"I'm really happy because we have such a wide range of interdisciplinary faculty and community leaders who have volunteered their Saturday," Boxill said before the event.
UNC's team consisted of 10 members, with four of them participating as alternates. Five members will go on to the championship.
Member Sonja Bell said the team practiced for the event by holding mock debates.
In the semifinal round, UNC tied with Campbell University.
Officials broke the tie and allowed UNC to advance to the final round because its team had won all three of its previous rounds, and Campbell had lost one of its matches.
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Levi
posted 11/19/07 @ 4:52 PM EST
Congrats!
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