Andrew Olsen

Papers

Total Citations

100

H-Index

About

Andrew Olsen is a provocative thinker whose work reshapes how we understand the intersection of morality and mind perception. His primary research areas lie at the crossroads of social cognition, moral psychology, and the philosophy of mind. Olsen’s most influential contribution stems from his landmark paper, “The Harm-Made Mind” (2013), which has garnered over 100 citations and sparked a paradigm shift in the field. In this work, he challenges the intuitive assumption that minds must exist before moral interactions can occur. Through four elegant experiments, Olsen demonstrates the reverse: that observing intentional harm—even toward an unconscious entity like a vegetative patient—leads people to retroactively attribute a mind to the victim. This suggests that morality does not follow from mind perception but actively creates it. By flipping the causal arrow, Olsen reveals how our moral judgments can construct the very minds we believe we are protecting. His work has profound implications for bioethics, artificial intelligence, and legal reasoning, forcing scholars to reconsider how we assign moral status. For students and researchers, Olsen offers a compelling reminder that the boundaries of mind are not fixed but are shaped by the harms we witness.