Arne Johan Vetlesen

Arne Johan Vetlesen is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo's Faculty of Humanities, affiliated with the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas. He holds membership in the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and has received the Prisoners' Testament Award. His research focuses on ethics, environmental philosophy, critical theory, and genocide studies, with interdisciplinary insights from psychology and sociology.

He has authored/co-authored nearly 30 books, including Animal Lives and Why They Matter (2023) and Ethics in the Time of the Climate Crisis (2022). Recent publications address topics like Holocaust ethics, climate responsibility, and animal rights. Vetlesen has participated in public committees on child welfare, mental healthcare, and migration policies. He lectures widely on environmental ethics, psychiatry-philosophy intersections, and education reform.

His work emphasizes moral responsibility in environmental degradation, the role of empathy in ethical judgment, and critiques of neoliberal capitalism. He contributes to public discourse through columns in Morgenbladet and Klassekampen.