An
airport security officer asks a Muslim woman to remove her birqa. Does that
constitute profiling? Can we balance individual rights with the security of the
public?
A
pharmaceutical firm sends samples of antidepressants to people whose names have
been supplied by physicians. Is this a breech of the doctor-patient
relationship? Is it an appropriate form of marketing.
Questions
like those await Union's Ethics Bowl team, which travels to Charlotte, N.C., to compete with 40 other teams on Feb. 27 in the ninth
annual event.
Representing
Union are Raiyan Syed '03, a political science major; Jeffrey
Marshall '05, philosophy; Mohammed Khaleel '03, bio-econ ID/Leadership in
Medicine; Eleanor Alk '06, undeclared; and Aaron Edelstein '05, organizing
theme in American ethics. Team researchers are Jamie Werner '05, a political
science/philosophy ID major; and Justin Geist '03, political science.
The team
is sponsored by the College's Philosophy Department and coached by Michael
Mathias, visiting assistant professor of philosophy. Support comes from a grant
from the Intellectual Enrichment Fund.
Among other schools competing this year are Dartmouth College, Indiana University, the University of Florida and Texas A&M.
Ethics Bowl combines the excitement of a competitive quiz with an innovative
approach to education in practical and professional ethics, Mathias said. A
moderator poses questions to teams of three to five students. Questions
may address ethical problems in classroom topics (e.g., cheating or plagiarism),
professional ethics (e.g., issues in engineering, law, medicine or business),
or social and political ethics (e.g., free speech or gun control).
Each
team receives a set of 15 questions in advance of the competition, and
questions posed to the teams at the competition are taken from that list.
A panel of judges evaluates answers; rating criteria are soundness of
reasoning, clarity, focus and depth. Typically each team responds to four
or five questions during a match.
The Ethics Bowl is held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. After competing in the
Ethics Bowl, students will meet practitioners, professionals and scholars for
discussion of issues in practical and professional ethics. Professor Mathias
will be hosting a conference session on business ethics.