Australian Senior Ethics Olympiad

By Nick Ewbank, Head of History, Philosophy and RaVE

The Radford team of Pippa Humphries and Edi Lupton (Year 10), and Terry Yang, Olivia Wang and Holly Todd (Year 11) participated in the Australian Ethics Olympiad on 27 July, having qualified by topping the ACT event earlier in the year.

The team’s participation on Wednesday was particularly notable, as two of the five members – Edi and Terry – were at home in COVID isolation.

Thanks to the event being online, both were able to join in and, as ever, made a series of highly effective contributions to the team’s efforts.

An Ethics Olympiad is where teams ‘face off’ over identified ethical scenarios – e.g. making the entry system to universities fairer for people from less-advantaged groups, cheating in the Paralympics, or ‘killer art’ – art which involves physical or psychological damage to humans or other animals. Students have had access to the scenarios for some time, but they are also required to think ‘on the spot’, responding constructively to the ideas of the other team.

While these events sound like they might be combative, the aim is to examine and discuss the ethical issues in the scenarios to try and reach a deeper and better understanding. There is also very much a teamwork ethic, as students within a team are expected to work together both in preparing and presenting their arguments, and augmenting the points made by other members of the team. In this way, the event promotes the idea of reasoned discussion in a civil society (something that appears often lacking in contemporary politics!).

Overall, our Radford ‘Ethletes’ represented the College admirably and can be very proud of their participation, not least as they were placed sixth out of the 20 participating schools [which included eight international schools (from India, NZ, Canada and Hong Kong)].

A fine effort, well done!

Ethics Olympiad - all participants

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