Recent Discussion

The cold weather could not keep the 100 or so Big Ethical Question fans away from Slam 2. If you didn't see it, you won't know who won. It was close. Second place went to Arbor Hospice Ethics team, in part for their response to a question about whether it is ethical to omit qualifications as important as having a doctorate from your resume...because you don't want to be placed in the overqualifed dead resume pile. Who won? 

Watch the video below to find out.

“‘You’d be surprised’ wouldn’t be a bad motto either.”
--Ludwig Wittgenstein

Be prepared for a surprisingly good time when you join us on Thursday, January 19, at Conor O’Neill’s Pub for Slam 2.

Provocative ideas, original thinking, creative word play, serious thought and silly banter… What better way to light up a long, dark January night? 

We’ve got six teams of contenders, ready and eager to tackle a host of fascinating ethical issues, such as:  Read More »

The Ann Arbor City Council approved the appointment of the city's transportation program manager to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority's (AATA) governing board on December 19th. Two Council members, Stephen Kunselman (D-3rd Ward) and Jane Lumm (I-2nd Ward), voted against the appointment.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 is local election day in Ann Arbor. Six candidates are running for school board. Four of the five wards have contested elections. There are 3 proposals on the ballot. Proposal 3 taps into an issue A2Ethics.org is keenly interested in examining at the municipal government level: the elimination of conflicts of interest by city officers. 

 I have a small specialized courier service and often take fragile items from the city to people's country homes.  Yesterday I arrived at the country home of a client and proceeded down the dirt road to the house.  My van had to go through an arborway which was very overgrown.  The client told me they had cut back the growth as best they could a week earlier.  Although I didn't want to, I drove very slowly through the arborway and up to the house.  After delivering the fragile items I looked at the sides of my van which was now scratched.

The Big Ethical Question Slam, our ethics improv competition,  gives us an opportunity to judge not only the answers to the questions posed, but the questions themselves.

Is it possible to determine what the really Big questions in ethics are? 

Should we spend time on asking them in the first place? Should it matter to us?

Here are a few of the sample questions that Slam teams are obliged to answer in order to gain the philosopher's hat and the prize: