I’m Ole Martin Moen, a 26-year-old Ph.D. fellow in philosophy at University of Oslo, Norway. Most of my work is in ethics, and my doctoral dissertation, due next year, is a defense of egoistic hedonism—a historically central, but contemporarily neglected, theory in normative ethics. I fear the theory is true, and I’m trying to give it its best shot.

Before pursuing a doctorate in philosophy, I did a B.A. and an M.Phil. in intellectual history. I’ve done most of my graduate work in Oslo, but in 2008 I spent a semester at UC Berkeley and in 2011 a semester at University of Oxford.

I love applied philosophy—it’s the applications that keep me going—and I’m interested in a wide range of disparate topics such as violence and retaliation, animals, body modification, religion, and prostitution. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty, and when writing on prostitution I worked on an outreach project at the Norwegian Prostitution Center. I’m planning future papers on drugs, torture, seasteading, transhumanism, and libertarianism, and on the selection mechanisms that make people become politicians.

I also have a strong interest in didactics of philosophy, and my spark for this subject was lit when, in 2005/2006, I taught philosophy at Ullern videregående skole. I have written a book on essay writing for students, “Essayskriving: kort og klart” (Norwegian Academic Press), and I recently reviewed an ethics textbook for Journal of Value Inquiry. I’m currently also co-founding a secondary school, Humanistskolen, together with two friends of mine who already work in secondary education. Here’s our philosophy curriculum. Whether or not the school will be allowed to start is up to Norwegian educational authorities.

I live in downtown Oslo together with my best friend, Thomas.

For more information, see my Curriculum Vitae (English). See also my alphabetical list of heroes.