Whitworth’s Ethics Bowl team, the Philosoraptors, won at the Northwest Regional Ethics Bowl on Saturday, November 12 at Pacific Lutheran University.  The team took first place among 10 universities from three states.  Whitworth defeated the University of Portland, Seattle Pacific University and Pacific Lutheran University in the preliminary rounds, Washington State University in the semifinals and Whitman College in the final round.  Other teams attending the bowl included Montana State University, Seattle University, and, St Martin’s University.

This achievement makes the team eligible to attend the national bowl for the eighth time in the past nine years.  That bowl will be held in Dallas, Texas in late February.

This means in the calendar year 2016 Whitworth won the state ethics bowl, the regional ethics bowl and the national ethics bowl without losing a single round.  The team was 16-0 across three bowls in 2016.  Coach Keith Wyma refers to this as “winning the triple crown.”

Team members include English and philosophy major Kaitlin Barnes ’17, political science major James Eccles ’17, biology major Zach Halma ’18, philosophy and psychology major TJ Westre ’16 and communication studies major Geoff White ‘18.  The team is coached by Mike Ingram (Communication Studies) and Keith Wyma (Philosophy).

The team prepared to analyze 12 difference cases written by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.  The cases covered a wide range of topics from technology law and national security, climate change, harvesting organs of infants with severe maladies, and printing guns on 3D printers.