Ethics Bowl

The Ethics Bowl is a national collegiate tournament modeled on the "College Bowl". Every year, teams from colleges and universities all over the country compete to become the team that best defends its position on ethical dilemmas. Topics are distributed in advance, in mid-January, and range widely over areas such as the classroom (e.g. cheating or plagiarism), personal relationships (e.g. dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g. engineering, architecture, business, the military, law, medicine, etc.) and social and political ethics (e.g. free speech, gun control, health care, etc.). Further details are available on the official Ethics Bowl website.

For information on Union's Ethics Bowl Team, see the Union College Ethics Bowl home page.

Logic Puzzle Contest

On the first Wednesday of every month during the academic year, a puzzle involving logical reasoning will be posted online. Solutions are due a week later at noon. If yours is the first correct solution drawn out of a metaphorical hat, you will win a valuable philosophy book. You need not be enrolled in or h ave taken any philosophy courses to enter.

For more information, including the latest logic puzzle and instructions on how to enter, see the Logic Puzzle Contest home page.

Philosophical Café

The Philosophical Café is a forum for students to discuss philosophical issues of general interest. It meets several times a year, from 7:00 to 9:00 in the evening, over pizza and drinks. There will be a pre-announced theme for each meeting and a faculty moderator. The moderator will give a 5- to 10- minute introduction to the topic. The rest of the evening will l be group discussion of the issue.

For more information, see the Events page.

Philosophy Club

The Philosophy Club is a forum for social and intellectual interaction among our majors. Although it has a faculty facilitator (Felmon Davis), the Club calls its own meetings and determines its own agenda. The agenda may be anything from planning a social event or a field trip to a nearby philosophy conference, to making suggestions to the faculty about what upper division courses should be taught in the following year or what topics should be discussed in the Philosophical Café.

The Philosophy Club also publishes Ephemeris, perhaps the premier undergraduate journal of philosophy that originates in North America. For more information, see the Ephemeris website.

Philosophy Talks

A department-sponsored series of Philosophy Talks are given by distinguished guest speakers from all over the country. Occasionally we also have lunch-time talks in the Humanities Lounge. These events are open to anyone who is interested. If you would like to be put on our mailing list for these events, please e-mail us at philosophy@union.edu.

Prizes

The Philosophy Department awards two prizes every year, the Sternfeld Prize and the Larrabee Prize.

The Milton Hymes Sternfeld (1916) Prize is awarded for the best original essay in philosophy by a member of the senior class. Entries must be submitted to the Department by the last day of the Winter Term. All senior theses will automatically become entries. Seniors are encouraged to submit their best term papers or essays (from their final academic year only).

The Harrold A. Larrabee Prize is awarded by faculty nomination to the student who has done the best work in philosophy during the year.

For the 2003 winners please see the "Students" page.

Special Events

Department-sponsored.