Ethics Bowls are known for modeling the democratic ideal: high-brow, collaborative discussion about difficult moral and political matters. Participants author their own positions, are free to agree, and are expected to behave as mature, responsible adults seeking principled solutions.
Advocates are often drawn by Ethics Bowl’s potential to elevate our often caustic, violent political culture. And so it’s no surprise that the Concerned Philosophers for Peace, a group committed to justice through reasoned dialogue, would welcome a presentation on Ethics Bowl’s potential to facilitate peace at their annual conference, nor that many CPP members would be involved with Ethics Bowl already.
A Global Audience for a Global Movement
On Saturday, October 18, Pellissippi State Community College philosophy professor Court Lewis and I pitched Ethics Bowl as a unique vehicle for peace at the annual CPP conference in San Marcos, Texas. Hosted by longtime member Greg Moses at beautiful Texas State University, attendees included scholars not only from the U.S., but Albania, Australia, Canada, India, and Poland.
Member presentations ranged from Kimberly Madero’s talk on using AI to supplement history students’ appreciation of suppressed groups’ perspectives, to Ada Cebula’s talk on how Germany has attempted to distance itself from atrocities committed in Poland during WWII, to Greg Bock’s talk on balancing forgiveness with self-respect to avoid succumbing to the temptation for vindictive revenge. A truly international gathering, Anna Taft of the Tandana Foundation was even joined live via Zoom by Margarita Fuerez in Ecuador and Moussa Tembine in Mali.
This was fitting given that Ethics Bowls aren’t isolated to the U.S. While it may have began in Bob Ladenson’s Illinois Institute of Technology philosophy classroom before the turn of the century, today Ethics Bowls are practiced in some form or fashion in Canada, Australia, India, China, and the U.K. And, most recently, new teams were added in South Korea and even Iran.
Not Your Traditional Debate
Speaking to this audience with global representation, my and Dr. Lewis’s presentation made the case that Ethics Bowl is a natural CPP ally. Often organized by philosophy departments and staffed by philosophy faculty and students, Ethics Bowl is essentially gamified deliberative democracy. Teams develop their views over several weeks, share them with an eye towards collaborative progress, and are judged according to the quality of their reasoning and their demonstration of sincere civility. To put it another way, Ethics Bowls bring the highbrow, respectful norms found in our philosophy classrooms to the masses.
While the format mirrors traditional debate in many ways, it’s very different. Ethics Bowl doesn’t assign teams positions based on a coin flip. Instead, teams are tasked with deciding for themselves whether prisoners should be allowed to donate organs in exchange for reduced sentences, whether educators who ban student AI use should be allowed to use it for lecture prep or grading, whether SNAP benefit recipients should be barred from purchasing soda or other junk foods. These are all real Ethics Bowl cases from 2025-2026 season, and all timely issues we’re facing in the real world. Intercollegiate and National High School Ethics Bowl case topics this season also include:
- Whether it was OK for an activist artist to starve piglets to death to encourage scrutiny of the factory farming system.
- Whether the international community should provide aid to Afghanistan to help its citizens receive health care and food, or whether aid should be withheld to pressure the Taliban to improve conditions for women and girls.
- Whether more states should allow people to choose to “compost” their bodies in lieu of cremation or traditional burial.
- Whether it’s OK for a zoo to solicit aging pets to use as food for exotic animals.
- Whether it’s OK to allow AI-generated likenesses of murder victims to “testify” at their killers’ sentencing hearings.
While debate competitions would typically require teams to answer the above questions based on the flip of a coin, and would then instruct them to mercilessly defend their received view by any means necessary, Ethics Bowl both empowers teams to decide for themselves, expects them to articulate reasonable public arguments, and to engage with the other team and judges in a mutually respectful dialogue rather than a combative quarrel—an approach CPP attendees found very attractive.
Another key difference between Ethics Bowl and traditional debate is that participants are tasked with charitably considering how a reasonable critic might disagree with their view and proactively responding. Similar to the “objection and reply” portion standard in philosophy paper assignments and academic journal articles, this requirement of earnestly engaging an objector is designed to cultivate humility. But it has the added benefit of encouraging compassion and appreciation for our shared fallible humanity.
Reassuring Military Participation
Apart from cultivating moral mindfulness, humility, and mutual respect among everyday citizens, Ethics Bowl is an even more promising tool for peace due to the fact that it’s taken seriously by various military academies. The Air Force Academy won the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl national championship in 1996. West Point, which trains select U.S. Army officers, won it in ’98, ’99, ’06 and ’17. And the U.S. Naval Academy won in ‘03 and ’23.
That future military leaders are encouraged to participate in Ethics Bowl isn’t a guarantee that they’ll always choose the more peaceful option. But it’s certainly a welcome supplement to their character-building leadership training, and a guard against those who might downplay the horrors of war and rush into conflict when peaceful alternatives are available. At least one foreign military has also caught on—an Indian Army Officers’ Wives group, which hosts recurring high school Bowls.
Powerful Partners for Peace
In a world where leaders often dictate what tribes are expected to unquestioningly defend, Ethics Bowl nurtures our independent reason while at the same time encouraging principled solutions. At a time when we’re often taught that those who disagree with us are not only wrong, but evil, Ethics Bowl affirms the fact that well-intentioned, thoughtful people can hold a variety of views—even views that might initially seem preposterous.
Taken together, Ethics Bowl’s insistence on moral accountability, collaboration, and humility has the power to shape cultures in a more thoughtful, morally mindful, peaceful direction. During the conference, several CPP members shared how they were already involved as coaches, which was no surprise. The CPP and Ethics Bowl are natural allies with shared visions and bright futures. Here’s to deepening our partnership and doing more to bring about a more just, peaceful world.
To learn more about and potentially join the Concerned Philosophers for Peace, visit PeacePhilosophy.org. And to learn more about Ethics Bowl, visit EthicsBowl.org or read Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! Saving Democracy by Transforming Debate, released on September 15, 2025—International Democracy Day.
