Ole Martin Moen (; born 28 April 1985) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

philosopher who works primarily with

applied ethics Applied ethics refers to the practical aspect of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in the areas of private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadersh ...

and

value theory In ethics and the social sciences, value theory involves various approaches that examine how, why, and to what degree humans value things and whether the object or subject of valuing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. Within philosophy, ...

. He is Professor of Ethics at

Oslo Metropolitan University Oslo Metropolitan University (Oslomet; no, Oslomet – storbyuniversitetet)"Skrivemåten av universitetsnamnet Oslomet – storbyuniversitetet," Language Council of Norway, 17/677-4/DGI, 18 January 2018 is a state university in Oslo and Akersh ...

and Researcher in Philosophy and Principal Investigator for the 5-year research project "What should not be bought and sold?" at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, funded by the

Research Council of Norway The Research Council (also the Research Council of Norway; no, Norges forskningsråd) is a Norwegian government agency that funds research and innovation projects. On behalf of the Government, the Research Council invests NOK 11,9 billion (2021) ...

Education and career

Moen received a PhD in philosophy from the

in 2013; his dissertation was on

hedonism Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...

. As a master's student, he was at times affiliated with the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, Berkeley and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. During his doctoral studies, he also stayed at the University of Oxford. Moen has published articles in journals such as the ''

Journal of Medical Ethics The ''Journal of Medical Ethics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of bioethics that was established in 1975. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2019 impact factor of 2.021, ranking it fou ...

'', ''Journal of Bentham Studies'', ''

Philosophia ''Philosophia: Philosophical Quarterly of Israel'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering philosophy from different traditions that was established in 1971. The journal publishes five issues per year, and it is published by Springer Nat ...

'', ''Reason Papers'' and ''

Think In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

''. He has written on a number of controversial topics, including prostitution, active euthanasia, animal welfare,

wild animal suffering Wild animal suffering is the suffering experienced by nonhuman animals living outside of direct human control, due to harms such as disease, injury, parasitism, starvation and malnutrition, dehydration, weather conditions, natural disasters, an ...

, school, cosmetic surgery, monogamy,

cryonics Cryonics (from el, κρύος ''kryos'' meaning 'cold') is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains, with the speculative hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticis ...

and

transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

. Moen's articles have been published in ''Forbes'', ''The Independent'', ''Washington Times'', ''Aftenposten'' and ''Morgenbladet''. He is a in-house philosopher on the Norwegian radio show Verdibørsen and runs the podcast Moralistene with Aksel Braanen Sterri. Together with two other teachers, he established the ''Humanistskolen in Oslo'' ("Humanist School in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

"). The school was initially refused approval from the Ministry of Education, but after the Ministry of Gender Equality and Discrimination Ombud (LDO) came to the conclusion that the Ministry had refused in contravention of the law, the school nevertheless received approval.

Politics

Moen was elected to the Øvre Eiker municipal council for the Progress Party in 2003 and served two years. In 2004, Moen announced his transition to the Liberal People's Party and justified it by saying that "the fight for a liberal FRP has been lost". In December 2005, he announced a move from the municipality, and Snorre Rogstad (Frp) thus took over the position as municipal council representative. Moen has also been secretary of Øvre Eiker Progress Party, deputy leader of the youth organization Liberalistisk Ungdom, leader of Liberalistisk Ungdoms fylkeslag in Oslo, leader of Human-Ethisk Studentlag and project employee at Civita in 2007. Moen has not had any office or association with party politics since leaving the Liberal People's Party.

Awards

In 2019, Moen received the Zapffe Prize of from the University of Oslo, for his article "Anti-Natalism and Human Enhancement". In the article on

Peter Wessel Zapffe Peter Wessel Zapffe (18 December 1899 – 12 October 1990) was a Norwegian philosopher, author, artist, lawyer and mountaineer. He is often noted for his philosophically pessimistic and fatalistic view of human existence. His system of ph ...

's philosophy, he argues against Zapffe's

antinatalism Antinatalism or anti-natalism is the view that procreation is wrong. Antinatalists argue that humans should abstain from procreation because it is morally wrong. In scholarly and literary writings, various ethical arguments have been put forth i ...

, instead claiming that we should focus on improving the human condition using

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

Publications

Articles

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Books

* *

References

External links

*
Moralistene
- Moen's podcast (in Norwegian)

- ''Philosophical Disquisitions: Podcast'' (Episode #51)
Interview with Michael Pollan
(video)
Interview with Peter Singer
(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Moen, Ole Martin 1985 births Living people 21st-century Norwegian philosophers Animal ethicists Bioethicists Environmental ethicists Hedonism Transhumanists Academic staff of Oslo Metropolitan University University of Oslo alumni Academic staff of the University of Oslo