Molly Gardner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Philosophy
Website
Currently Teaching
- On leave for Spring 2026
Areas of Specialization
- Ethics
Curriculum Vitae
Current Projects
"David Boonin on the Non-Identity Argument: Rejecting the Second Premise," Law, Ethics, and Philosophy, forthcoming
"Artificial Intelligence in Black Mirror: Is Your Cookie You?" (with Robert Sloane) in Black Mirror and Philosophy, ed. David Kyle Johnson. Blackwell, forthcoming
Edited Volume
The Ethics of Policing and Imprisonment. With Michael Weber. Palgrave Macmillan 2018.
Articles and Essays
"Introduction" (with Michael Weber) in The Ethics of Policing and Imprisonment, eds. Molly Gardner and Michael Weber. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. pp. 1–6.
"When Good Things Happen to Harmed People," Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 22 (2019) 893-908, (Online 2017). 18pp.
"On the Strength of the Reason Against Harming," Journal of Moral Philosophy 14:1 (2017) 73–97.
"Beneficence and Procreation," Philosophical Studies 2016, 173(2): 321–336.
"The Interspecies Killing Problem," in The Moral Rights of Animals, eds. Mylan Engel, Jr. and Gary Comstock (Lexington Books, 2016. pp. 119–140.
"A Harm-Based Solution to the Non-Identity Problem," Ergo 2015, 2(17): 427–444.
"Well-Being and the Non-Identity Problem," in The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Well- Being, ed. Guy Fletcher. Routledge, 2015. pp. 429–38.
"How Lives Measure Up" (with Justin Weinberg), Acta Analytica 2013, 28(1): 31–48.
Reviews and Commentaries
Review of F.M. Kamm & ed. Eric Rakowski, The Trolley Problem Mysteries, in Ethics 126:4 (July 2016).
Review of David Boonin's The Non-Identity Problem and the Ethics of Future People, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, (July 2015).
"Retribution, Deterrence, and Organ Donation," American Journal of Bioethics 11:10 (2011) 7–9.
"Cut the Fat! Defending Trans Fat Bans" (with Nathan Nobis), American Journal of Bioethics 10:3 (2010) 39–40.
Presentations and Commentaries
"Is there a Non-Identity Problem in Different-Species Cases?" Workshop on the Non-Identity Problem, Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, February 2020
"Is There an Egalitarian Reason to Promote Animal Well-Being?" Workshop on Utilitarian Approaches in Animal Ethics, Oxford University, September 2019
"Doing Harm, Allowing Harm, and the Trolley Problem" Keynote address for the 26th University of Waterloo Annual Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Waterloo, Canada, March 2019.
"Doing Harm, Allowing Harm, and the Trolley Problem," 93rd Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, July 2019
Comments on Dan Haybron, "Excellence and Beauty," Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, July 2019
"Doing Harm, Allowing Harm, and Future Generations"
Workshop: Do Deontological Distinctions Survive Future Generations? at the University of Southampton, U.K., September 2018
Ohio Normativity Workshop, Ohio State University, September 2018
"Animal Welfare, Harm, and Death," Workshop on Translational Bioethics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 2018
"Deontological Approaches to Animal Ethics," Workshop on Translational Bioethics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 2018
"Why the Numbers Don't Count, But the Reasons Do"
Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, July 2018
DeCamp Bioethics Seminar, Princeton University, November 2017
Research Seminar in Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University, August 2016
Colloquium in the department of philosophy at Siena Heights University, April 2016
Oxford Theoretical Population Ethics Conference, November 2015
"Harming, Doing Harm, and Causation," Symposium on the Nature and Significance of Harm, American Philosophical Association - Pacific Division, March 2018.
"Revisiting the Strength of the Reason Against Harming," Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Annual Conference, March 2018.
Comments on John Symons, "On the Possibility of a Prudentially Valuable, Happy, but Meaningless Life," Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, August 2018
"What's the Harm?" Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, July 2017
"Should Laboratory Animals Be Compensated for their Suffering?" Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, March 2017
"Doing Right by Future Generations," California State University Long Beach Applied Ethics Forum, March 2017
Comments on Michael Bishop, "Studying Happiness: Closing the Philosophy-Psychology Gap," Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, July 2017
Comments on Patricia Marino, "Value Pluralism, Challenges to Consequentialism, and the Law and Economics Movement," Workshop on Methodology in Applied Ethics, February 2017
"The Problem of Justified Harm"
Workshop on Harm: The Concept and Its Relevance, Uppsala University, August 2016
Syracuse Philosophy Annual Workshop and Network, July 2016
Author Meets Critics Session on The Moral Rights of Animals, Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2016
"Inconsequentiality and Climate Change," Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference XIX, April 2016
Comments on Scott Forschler, "Two Mistaken Strategies of Deontology," Ohio Philosophical Association, 2016
"Inconsequentiality and Climate Change," Workshop on Ethics and Adaptation, University at Buffalo, May 2015
"Are There Some Environmental Losses for Which We Cannot Be Fully Compensated?," Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, July 2015
"Doing, Allowing, and Causation," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2015 (poster presentation)
Comments on Joshua May, "The Death of Double Effect," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, 2015
Comments on Stephen Campbell and Joseph Stramondo, "Disability, Well-Being, and the Complicated Question of Neutrality," Kansas Well-Being Workshop, 2015
Comments on Alicia Hall, "Making Good Choices: Theories of Well-Being and Conflict between Autonomy and Beneficence," Midsouth Philosophy Conference 2015
"Harm and the Non-Identity Problem"
Visiting Professor Workshop, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, August 2014
Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, July 2014
"Doing, Allowing, and Causation," Bled Conference on Ethics, June 2014
"Counterfactuals, Harm, and Selecting for Disability"
Research Forum, Philosophy and Economics Program, University of Bayreuth, Germany (invited), June 2014
Colloquium in the department of philosophy at University of South Carolina, Columbia (invited), November 2013
"Headaches, Lives, and Value" (poster presentation), Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2014
"Causes, Conditions, and Harming," North Carolina Philosophical Society, February 2014
"The Case against Politicians" (with Justin Weinberg), South Carolina Society for Philosophy, February 2014
Comments on Chris Heathwood, "Which Desires are Relevant to Well-Being?" Kansas Workshop on Well-Being, 2014
Comments on Zac Cogley, "Fortifying the Self-Defense Justification of Punishment," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, 2014
Comments on Thomas Bontly, "Causation, Harm, and the Non-Identity Problem," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division, 2014
Comments on Aaron Wolf, "Reviving Concurrentism about Death," American Philosophical Association Central Division, 2014
"On the Strength of the Reason against Harming", Visiting Professor Workshop, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, August 2013
"On the Strength of the Reason against Harming," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2013
"Value Monism and Incomparability"
Midsouth Philosophy Conference, February 2013
Joint Meeting of the South Carolina Society for Philosophy and the North Carolina Philosophical Society, February 2012
Comments on Caleb Ontiveros, "Abortion, Other-Defense, and the Infantist," Online Undergraduate Ethics Conference, Coastal Carolina University, 2013
Comments on Steven Weimer, "Toward a Flexible Historical Theory of Autonomy," Midsouth Philosophy Conference 2013
"How to Count Value" (with Justin Weinberg), Bled Conference on Ethics, June 2012
"Inevitability, Misfortune, and Personal Value," Iowa Philosophical Society, October 2012
"The Comparative Account of Misfortune" (poster presentation), Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2012
"Beneficence and Procreation," South Carolina Society for Philosophy, February 2012
Comments on Duncan Purves, "The Non-Identity Problem and the Leveling-Down Objection," Illinois Philosophical Association, 2012
Comments on Jason Hanna, "Doing, Allowing, and the Moral Relevance of the Past," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, 2012
Comments on Christopher E. Franklin, "Event-Causal Libertarianism, Functional Reduction, and the Disappearing Agent Argument," APA Central Division, 2012
"The Problem of Too Much Harm" (poster presentation), Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, August 2011
Comments on Robert Osborne, "Why Death is a Loss," Illinois Philosophical Association, 2011
Comments on Hallie Liberto, "Moral Perpendiculars," Central States Philosophical Association, 2011
Comments on Melinda Roberts, "Variabilism and the Asymmetry," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, 2011
"Time Travelers Who Kill Their Younger Selves: They're Closer Than You Think," Central States Philosophical Association, September 2010
"Situationism and Autonomy," Wisconsin Philosophical Association, April 2010
Comments on Lori Gruen, "Ethics of Captivity," Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, 2010
Comments on Robyn Gaier, "Hey, You, What's So Special About the Second Person Perspective?" Central States Philosophical Association, 2009
Comments on John Brunero, "Consistency in Belief and Intention" Central States Philosophical Association 2008