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Department of Philosophy

Ethics Bowl

The Department of Philosophy proudly houses multiple Ethics Bowl teams, that compete nationally each academic year.

About Ethics Bowl

Ethics Bowl, organized by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE), is a competition involving case analysis. Teams at universities and colleges across the U.S. receive a set of cases in September. Teams then study the cases and consider what possible ethical questions, dilemmas, and debates could arise.

At the annual Ethics Bowl competition, each team receives a question (which they do not know in advance of the round), and has two minutes to craft an extemporaneous argument in response. After a 10-minute presentation, they receive commentary from an opposing team and undergo a Q&A with a panel of judges from the academy and the community. The competition proceeds in a series of four rounds, and the team that scores the highest wins the competition.

In fall 2023, two Vanderbilt teams placed at the APPE Upper Midwest Regional Bowl. One team took first and the other took fourth. Although both teams qualified for nationals, only one will attend due to a rule about schools’ representation at nationals.

First-place team:

  • Sophia Wang
  • Madi Baltagulov
  • Bridget Hall
  • Nicholas Skoufis

Fourth-place team:

  • Naomi Letson
  • Lishan Li
  • Ethan Thorpe
  • Mica Chua
  • Aadi Bajpai

Get Involved

Although housed within the Department of Philosophy, Ethics Bowl is truly an interdisciplinary endeavor and students from all majors are welcome to join. Preparations for each year’s regional competition begin in the fall semester.

If you would like to get involved, please email Lyn Radke, lecturer of philosophy.