Draft:Darrel Moellendorf

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Darrel Moellendorf (born February 13, 1961) is an American Philosopher and Political Theorist. He is currently a Professor at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. His primary philosophical work focuses on climate justice, as well as broader issues in climate and moral philosophy.

Early Life and Education

Moellendorf was born on February 13, 1961, in Omaha, Nebraska. He grew up in the nearby towns of Bellevue and Lincoln, graduating from Lincoln East High School in 1979.

At St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, he earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts in 1983. At Claremont Graduate School he earned a M.A. in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1990, both in Philosophy. His doctoral dissertation, "Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit," was supervised by A. R. Louch.

Academic Career

Moellendorf's academic career began in the California Community College system, serving as an Instructor of Philosophy at Riverside Community College (RCC) from 1988 to 1991. He subsequently took a tenure-track position at California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly), Pomona, where he worked as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy from 1991 to 1995.

In 1996, Moellendorf was promoted to associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, a position he held until 2002. While there, he completed his first book, Cosmopolitan Justice.

He then moved to San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2002, as a tenured Associate Professor before being promoted to Professor in 2007. At SDSU, he also served as the Founding Director of the Institute for Ethics and Public Affairs from 2002 to 2013 , an initiative funded by the James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust. His second book, Global Inequality Matters, was published while he worked at SDSU.

Since 2013, Moellendorf has been a Professor of International Political Theory at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, where he also holds a professorship in Philosophy.

From 2013 to 2018, he served as a Principal Investigator (PI) for the Excellence Cluster Normative Orders and published three books: Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change in 2014, Mobilizing Hope in 2022 and The Examined Illness in 2026.

Philosophy and Research

Moellendorf started his career as a Hegel scholar but his interest involved in the direction of contemporary and analytic moral philosophy. His work on climate justice defends an egalitarian version of cosmopolitanism. In this area he has been concerned to keep the importance of poverty eradication at the forefront of climate policy. He has also worked in just war theory defending a novel doctrine of Jus ex Bellum and on the moral psychology of hope.

Most recently Moellendorf’s interests have been in Planetary Futures, Climate Justice, Hope and Political Agency, and Patients’ Perspectives on Illness.

Selected Recognition

In 2025, Moellendorf was elected to the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, the academy of sciences at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University.

His book, Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty, received the Academics Stand Against Poverty Book of the Year Monograph Award in 2022.

His “Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation” at Ethics and International Affairs, 23:3, Fall 2009, 247-265 was the most down loaded paper of that journal that year.

From 2008 to 2009, he was a member of The School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Selected Bibliography

Books

• The Examined Illness: A Philosopher's confrontation with deadly disease. Intellect Books, 2026.

• Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty. Oxford University Press, 2022.

• The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change: Values, Poverty, and Policy. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

• Global Inequality Matters. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

• Cosmopolitan Justice. Westview Press (2002) / Routledge (2019 re-issue).

Edited Volumes

• Klimaethik. Ein Reader (Mitherausgeber: Lukas Sparenborg). Suhrkamp, 2025.

• The Routledge Handbook of Global Ethics (Co-edited with Heather Widdows). Routledge, 2014.

• Global Justice: Seminal Essays (Co-edited with Thomas Pogge). Paragon House, 2008.

• Current Debates in Global Justice (Co-edited with Gillian Brock). Springer, 2005.

• Jurisprudence (Co-edited with Christopher J.31 Roederer). Juta, 2004.

Weblinks

• Webseite at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

Category:20th-century American philosophers Category:Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt Category:American political scientists Category:American political philosophers Category:Living people Category:21st-century American philosophers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers