Tennessee Teens Tackle Tough Topics in Ethics Bowl
The UT Department of Philosophy hosts an annual competition for high school students that requires critical thinking, moral reasoning, and respectful debate.
While a snowstorm shut down much of East Tennessee on the last Saturday in January, teenagers from across the region gathered to sharpen their analytical skills by grappling with philosophical questions.
Usually, a dozen or more teams compete in the Tennessee High School Ethics Bowl hosted by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, but four made it to the 2026 event at the UT Conference Center.
“Notwithstanding the awful weather conditions, the event went really well,” said Teaching Associate Professor Sam Von Mizener, co-coordinator of this year’s event with Teaching Associate Professor Ginger Clausen. “The camaraderie and the enthusiasm were palpable.”
Part of the National High School Ethics Bowl competition, the event requires students to engage in civil discourse about significant and timely moral issues. This year’s topics include whether professors should use generative AI when students may not, how the food industry is responding to new types of weight loss drugs, county jails restricting inmates to costly virtual visits, and gene therapy that modifies an entire genome, making changes that can be passed along to future children.
“The Ethics Bowl is an example of the practical value of philosophy,” Von Mizener said. “In putting on an event that encourages the exercise of careful thinking about ethical matters, it’s a way to really create responsible, thoughtful players in our democracy.”
“Given how fractured our society is, if we could come together to discuss issues civilly, respectfully, and carefully, what more can you ask for?” he said.
Speaking Accurately and Respectfully
Ethics Bowl teams are given names to avoid any potential bias, and this year’s winner at UT was the Positivists, from University School of Nashville. The runner up was the Kantians, from Doeskin Valley Academy near Athens, Tennessee. Two teams from the Webb School of Bell Buckle also competed.
In a typical year the competition can be a 10-hour day for students and their coaches, with four seeding rounds, semifinals, and a championship round. Although the topics are set for each competition year, students don’t know which topic they must address until a match begins. A team has to not only present its case but also respond to another team and questions from judges.
The judges award points not only for clarity, relevance, and accuracy of the comments but also how respectful team members are.
Coached to Think Critically
Providing this opportunity for high school students takes several months of preparation from the department, and Von Mizener said philosophy PhD student Kaeleigh Damico was instrumental in helping to organize and facilitate this year’s event.
Faculty members also offer to attend team practices in person or online to offer advice. For example, they remind students to plan not only how they will make the case for their position but also how they will respond to questions or objections.
In addition to the philosophy department’s faculty members serving as judges, they recruit retired professionals from outside academia as well. Even the department’s undergraduate majors play a role, such as serving as moderators.
“Civil discourse, being able to disagree in a way that is thoughtful and kind and respectful, is so important to our democracy, and it’s sadly something that we’re seeing less and less of,” Von Mizener said. “When you get to experience how these young people engage in thoughtful debate, and how respectful they are, it really makes you hopeful about our future citizenry.”
The Ethics Bowl helps to show young people the value of studying philosophy, which prepares them to consider the big questions of life and for careers in fields as varied as law, medicine, business, technology, education, and government.
“Philosophy is a discipline that helps people think more clearly, and that, I think, is necessary for human flourishing,” Von Mizener said. “If our thinking is sloppy, we’re more prone to make errors when it comes to judgments about what’s good and what’s right, and the consequences of that can be extremely harmful.”
by Amy Beth Miller