Dr Anna Hartford Senior Lecturer: Philosophy | Head: Unit for Social and Political Ethics, Centre for Applied Ethics
Dr Anna Hartford is a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Head of the Unit for Social and Political Ethics (PROSPER) in the Centre for Applied Ethics. She completed a Masters in Cultural Reporting and Criticism at New York University, and her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. Her PhD, in the area of moral epistemology, concerned the question of culpability for belief and ignorance. She has been a research fellow in PROSPER since 2019, and co-developed the Unit’s MPhil programme along with Prof. Vasti Roodt. Before moving to SU full time in 2025, Anna was a research fellow in the Neuroscience Institute at UCT for four years, where she focused on questions at the intersection of philosophy and mental health/ illness.
Selected Publications
- “How Much Should a Person Know? Moral Inquiry & Demandingness,” Moral Philosophy and Politics (Special issue on “Demandingness in Practice”), 6, 2019, pp. 41-63
- “Moral & Factual Ignorance: A Quality of Will Parity,” Ethical Theory & Moral Practice, 22,
2019, pp. 1087- 1102 - “Complex Akrasia & Blameworthiness,” Journal of Philosophical Research, 45, 2020, pp. 15- 33
- “Difficulty & Quality of Will: Implications for Moral Ignorance,” Philosophical Explorations, 22, 2, 2022, pp. 141- 158
- “Attentional Harms & Digital Inequalities,” JMIR Mental Health, 9, 2, 2022
- “Fellow Strangers: Physical Distance and Evaluations of Blameworthiness,” Journal of Value Inquiry, 57, 2, 2023, pp. 343-363.
- “To Save a Likeness: John Berger on Drawing & Resemblance,” Critical Quarterly, 65, 1, 2023, pp. 44- 51
- “Unfathomable Life: Pregnancy and Risk in an Age of Prediction,” The Yale Review, 111, 3, 2023, pp. 33-50
- “Mental Illness, Exemption & Moral Exclusion: the Role of Interpretative Generosity.” Philosophical Explorations, 27(3), 2024, pp. 370-384.
- "The Machine Speaks: Conversational AI and the Importance of Effort to Relationships of Meaning," JMIR Mental Health, 2024, 11, p.e53203.
- “Entitled to Love: Relationships, Commandability, and Obligation,” 2025, Journal of Applied Philosophy
- “Ignorance, Impairment and Quality of Will,” 2025, Res Publica
- "Enhancement and Hyperresponsibility," 2023, in The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Human Enhancement
- "Addiction, Autonomy & the Internet: Some Ethical Considerations," 2022, in Mental Health in a Digital World
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Philosophy 114: Introduction to Philosophy
- Philosophy 364: Political Philosophy
Postgraduate
- Philosophy Honours
- MPhil (Applied Ethics) (Social & Political Ethics)
- Postgraduate diploma (Applied Ethics)