Philosophy Club

SCEGGS Wins Gold in the 2025 Senior Ethics Olympiad, NSW/ACT Division

On Friday 2 May, two teams of five SCEGGS students from Years 10-12 competed in the NSW/ACT Senior Division of the International Ethics Olympiad. The competition is hosted over Zoom and involves over 300 teams, 34 of which were involved in this round. The form of the competition is a series of structured conversations, somewhat like a debate with the important difference being that teams do not have to take a certain position and can even agree with each other. Scoring is based on the depth and appropriateness of the ethical arguments put forward by the competitors. The case studies in this year’s competition included the ethics of dog-eating, romantic relationships with chatbots, assisted dying, banning tobacco, age-based curfews, and the revision of Roald Dahl’s works to make them fit better with today’s moral standards.

Judges commended the two SCEGGS teams on their insight and their broad knowledge of ethical frameworks.

SCEGGS Purple placed ninth overall. The team members were: Zoe Lindner (Year 12), Florence Furness (Year 11), Jasmine Cohen (Year 10), Harriet Christie (Year 10), and Giulia Peroni (Year 10).

SCEGGS Blue came first and were awarded gold medals. They will compete early next term in the International Final against teams from the United States, South Korea, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, The UK, Canada and every state and territory in Australia.

The gold medal-winning SCEGGS team were Eleanor Lawrie (Year 12), Emily Taylor (Year 12), Aliyah Bensan (Year 11), Leona Brenton (Year 11), and Jemima Lowe (Year 11).

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Joseph Guss
Philosophy Club Facilitator