In collaboration with the UC Santa Cruz Center for Public Philosophy, we are creating a Silicon Valley Ethics Bowl league, and we are looking for tech companies to form teams of employees to compete against each other. For now, we are simply gauging interest. We would love to have you and your company involved! 

Our bowl is modeled after successful Ethics Bowls that happen each year at the collegiate, high school, and middle school levels. These events provide forums for students to enjoy respectful, supportive, and rigorous discussions on today’s most pressing ethical paradoxes. Teams meet regularly in the Fall, with a coach, to research and discuss that year’s cases. In the Winter and Spring, they hold Ethics Bowl competitions that reward students for their ability to reflect deeply, analyze complex issues, and openly discuss diverse perspectives on the topics. These events cultivate the virtues central to democratic citizenship and prepare students to navigate challenging issues in a systematic way. You can learn more and watch a video demo of the high school event at https://nhseb.unc.edu/.

This past year, high school students from around the country discussed issues such as:

• Is China’s social credit system ethically permissible?

• What, if anything, should be done to prevent or limit partisan gerrymandering?

• Are software developers morally responsible when systems they build act on racist or sexist stereotypes?

We have found that adults love to compete in Ethics Bowls too, and Silicon Valley is a hotbed of innovative and cutting-edge ethical challenges, so we are creating an Ethics Bowl league for employees of Silicon Valley tech companies to broaden these discussions, exchange ideas across generations, and promote the democratic virtues cultivated by the Ethics Bowl. We hope to host a variety of events as a part of the league, including matches between company teams and events mixing adult and collegiate, high school, and middle school ethics bowlers together.

For now we are simply gauging interest. If you would like your company participate, please fill out the form at https://www.paradoxlab.org/ethics-bowl and share the link with your colleagues! If you have any questions, please send an email to irisoved@paradoxlab.org.

If you would like your company participate, please fill out the form at https://www.paradoxlab.org/ethics-bowl and share the link with your colleagues! If you have any questions, please send an email to irisoved@paradoxlab.org.