Goethe University Frankfurt
Faculty of Social Sciences
Institute for Political Science
Visitors:
House "Normative Ordnungen"
Max-Horkheimer-Straße 2
3rd floor, room 3.11
Map of Campus Westend
Postal adress:
Goethe Universitaet Frankfurt am Main
Fach EXC 14
60629 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
I am a political theorist and an environmental, moral, and political philosopher. The sort of philosophical research I do is driven by problems in our lives and the world in which we live. I have many interests in Political Theory and Philosophy in general. I started professional life as a Hegel scholar, working on his philosophy of mind. I have defended an egalitarian form cosmopolitanism in the global justice debates. I have developed an account of just war theory, Jus ex Bello, that is focused on the morality of ending wars. I am currently working on the following three research projects: 1) A philosophical memoir of my experience of a rare form of blood cancer called The Examined Illness: The Good Life at the Edge of Life, which will be completed in 2024 and published in 2025 by Intellect Books. 2) An interdisciplinary research project, Making Hope, with two empirically minded colleagues, testing the extent to which central conceptual questions in the moral psychology of hope can be adequately answered by means of an empirical study. 3) A book manuscript in political theory and environmental philosophy tentatively entitled Another Anthropocene is Possible: Prosperity within Planetary Boundaries. I aspire in my writing to clarity and analytical rigor, with attention to argumentative structure and the needs of evidence, and I encourage the students that I supervise to do so as well.
I have learned from and been inspired by many and varied writers, among them the following:
“I tried to ask myself, when writing: precisely what does this sentence contribute to the developing exposition or argument, and is it true? You become analytical when you practice that sort of (frequently painful) self-criticism."
─G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History, A defence, preface to the 2000 edition
“Historically one of the main defects of constitutional government has been the failure to insure the fair value of political liberty. The necessary corrective steps have not been taken, indeed, they never seem to have been seriously entertained."
─ John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971
“[T]here are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I suggest that you too ought to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence. I call upon you to be maladjusted. Well you see, it may be that the salvation of the world lies in the hands of the maladjusted."
─Martin Luther King, Jr. A Look to the Future, 1957
“Pessimism is cowardice. The man who cannot frankly acknowledge the 'Jim-Crow' car as a fact and yet live and hope is simply afraid either of himself or of the world. There is not in the world a more disgraceful denial of human brotherhood than the 'Jim-Crow' car of the southern United States; but, too, just as true, there is nothing more beautiful in the universe than sunset and moonlight on Montego Bay in far Jamaica. And both things are true and both belong to this our world, and neither can be denied."
—W.E.B. Du Bois, Darkwater: Voices from within the vale, 1920
“The work against anxiety about life and the machinations of fear is that against creators, who are for the most easy to identify, and it looks in the world itself for what can help the world; this can be found."
– Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope, 1954, 1986 English Translation
“I may also confess that common as is the jackrabbit he never burst away in speed before me without being followed by wonder at his graceful mystery of motion; that the crawl of a wild-cat upon game is something that arrests and fascinates by its masterful skill; and that even the desert tramp, the coyote, is entitled to admiration for the graceful way he can slip through patches of cactus. The fault is not in the subject. It is not vulgar or ugly. The trouble is that we perhaps have not the proper angle of vision. If we understood all, we should admire all."
–John C. Van Dyke, The Desert, 1901
Contact Information
E-Mail: darrel.moellendorf@normativeorders.net
Questions about teaching exclusively to: lehre-moellendorf@soz.uni-frankfurt.de
Office hours: 10 am to 12 noon with an appointment via my Team Assistant Ellen Nieß
Student supervision
I supervise student theses in normative political theory and in philosophy. I am unable to supervise theses whose arguments primarily depend on empirical studies and methods, whether qualitative or quantitative. Students wishing to write such theses should seek other supervisors. I receive many requests to supervise bachelor's thesis and therefore prioritize as follows:
1) Students who have taken classes with me and who are working in areas in which I have enough expertise to supervise.
2) Students working in environmental political theory or environmental philosophy.
3) As my capacity allows, other students working in areas in which I have sufficient expertise.
I do not offer BA and MA supervision appointments or conduct oral examinations during the semester breaks.
Anyone wishing to have their bachelor thesis supervised by me should schedule an appointment with me through my team asisstant, Frau Nieß.
The story of how I got here.
The day I shook Nelson Mandela's hand.
Team Assistant: Ellen Nieß
Raum: 3.12
Tel.: +49 (0)69 / 798 - 31521
Fax: +49 (0)69 / 798 - 31462
ellen.niess@normativeorders.net
Office Hours for Students:
Tuesdays 10 - 12 and by appointment.
The secretariat will be closed from 13 May to 24 May.
Unter Klimaforschern herrscht
weitgehend Konsens, dass der Mensch durch die anhaltende Produktion von
Treibhausgasen globale und ‚unumkehrbare‘ Klimaveränderungen in Gang gesetzt
hat und das Ausma0 der Schäden nur durch ernsthafte
Emissionsvermeidungsstrategien beschränkt werden kann (IPCC 2019). Stritt ist
gleichwohl die konkrete Ausgestaltung einer solchen Strategie. Ökonomische
Modelle berechnen in diesem Kontext wohlfahrtsmaximierende
Vermeidungsstrategien. Das Optimumskalkül folgt dabei dem Kriterium der
Pareto-Effizienz, vernachlässigt aber in den meisten Fällen den Gedanken der
Verteilungsgerechtigkeit. Eine faire Verteilung der Kosten, sowohl zwischen als
auch innerhalb der Generationen, stellt jedoch eine wichtige Voraussetzung für
ein starkes Commitment der beteiligten Akteure dar. Die vorliegende Arbeit
untersucht daher, wie sich modellierte Vermeidungsstrategien ändern, falls
neben dem Effizienzgedanken auch Kriterien einer gerechten Verteilung in das
Optimumskalkül einfließen. Konkret werden ein ability-to-pay sowie ein
emission-intensity-reduction-Ansatz näher untersucht. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich,
dass der ability-to-pay-Ansatz keine wesentlichen Fairnessvorteile gegenüber
dem rein effizienzgetriebenen Ansatz verspricht. Dagegen scheint die
kontinuierliche Reduktion der Emissionsintensität eine gerechtere Verteilung
der Kosten mit einer erfolgreichen Beschränkung der Erderwärmung vereinen zu
können.