Ethics Competition
The Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University and the Department of Philosophy participate in the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl.
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl
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The Ethics Center and the Department of Philosophy are partnering to send an interdisciplinary team to the Ethics Bowl regional qualifier November 16, 2024, at the University of Chicago. The students are preparing for the competition as part of PHIL 3140: Ethics Bowl. The course instructor, Elek Metro-Roland, is coaching the team with assistance from fellow Philosophy graduate students Nathan Borghese and Michael Brook.
This year's team members are: Jade Celestine, a junior majoring in criminal justice studies and minoring in political science; Brendan Mathews, a senior majoring in philosophy; Daniel Meimers, a junior majoring in psychology; Antoine Royal, a freshman majoring in biomedical sciences and minoring in chemistry; Jakob Taylor, a sophomore with a double major in philosophy and political science; Jonah Verhage, a senior with a double major in political science and philosophy, and a minor in communication studies; and Heleana Wessendorf, a senior majoring in philosophy.
The APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (APPE IEB) provides students with an opportunity to practice applying the moral theories and argumentation principles that they learn in their ethics classes. Students receive a set of case studies in advance involving ethical issues in a number of practical contexts, including engineering, law, medicine, personal relationships, school and politics.
During a round, each team takes turns presenting its position on a case and critiquing the other team’s position on a different case. Teams must answer questions about their positions from a panel of judges. Judges assign scores based on logical consistency, clarity, focus and thoroughness.
WMU has competed in the bowl contest every year since it expanded from an intramural event at the Illinois Institute of Technology to a small regional contest involving a handful of colleges in 1994—an event WMU won. The competition went national in 1997. The national championship takes place every spring at the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. WMU’s best national showings were third out of 14 teams in 1998, fifth out of 26 teams in 2000, and ninth out of 32 teams in 2007.
The bowl became a tiered competition beginning in 2007, with practices and regional contests taking place every fall. WMU’s team won the 2006 regional qualifier at Harper College and the 2007 qualifier at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Join the team
If you are interested in representing Western Michigan University in the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl competition in 2025, sign up for PHIL 3140 in Fall 2025!