Ethics Olympiad success

By Anika Chaturvedi, Year 9

Ethics: a topic that possesses much room for reasoning and discussion, a topic which is perfect for a philosophical Olympiad.

On 2 November, two teams of Year 9 philosophy students entered the Australian Ethics Olympiad. Emily P, Lydia, Thomas, and Indi representing Radford Black, and Anika, Emily W, Erica, Tahlia, and Harry representing Radford Light Blue. Despite the majority of us not knowing/undertaking this competition previously, we all set foot into this formerly uncharted competition with open mindsets, knowing that we were undertaking this mostly for a fun challenge.

A week prior to the competition day, all 'Ethletes' (Ethical Athletes), were given eight case studies which varied from many differing accounts of ethical dilemmas. Additionally, questions about these dilemmas were also provided to be discussed on the day, and frankly, some of them were ethical brainteasers.

The competition day arrives, and we get our IT set up (as the competition was held over Zoom), and are pleasantly greeted by the Olympiad moderator who quickly escorts us to our first heat, although the first heat was simply a practice round. As the day progressed, we started to participate in scored events, discussing ethical issues and reasoning for hours on end, bouncing from one heat to the next.

Funnily enough, the 'Olympiad' in the 'Ethics Olympiad' stood very true as both teams were extremely exhausted after the six hours of philosophical reasoning and debate amongst other schools within Australia. However, within those six hours, we were pushed as teams to improve and hone our collaboration, reasoning, and justification skills within a fresh environment.

Ultimately, our collective effort was paid off, as evident in the final standings. Radford teams ranked 5th (Radford Black) and 2nd (Radford Light Blue) in the ACT, meaning that Radford Light Blue has secured a position in the Australasia International Olympiad held next year during late February!

I highly recommend this competition to anyone!

Thank you to the adjudicators and Mr Ewbank, who made this opportunity possible.


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