Michael Walschots
Postdoctoral Fellow
Philosophisches Seminar
Johannes Gutenberg University
Mainz, Germany
Welcome!
I'm currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, where I'm part of the project: 'Rethinking Enlightenment: The Reception of John Locke in Germany.'
Before coming to Mainz I was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Prior to that, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow on the DFG-funded project 'Practical Reasons Before Kant (1720-1780)', hosted by the University of Würzburg and Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg. In the past I have also been an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, and from 2016 to 2018 I was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow in the Philosophy Department at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
I received my Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario, Canada in 2016.
I have broad interests in ethics (meta-ethics, moral psychology, applied ethics) and its history (especially during the Modern period). I am particularly interested in eighteenth-century German and British moral philosophy, and a number of my publications have sought to better understand Kant’s ethics by placing him in dialogue with his eighteenth-century contemporaries and predecessors.
When I’m not reading and writing about philosophy I’m either cooking, baking, or going on adventures with my wife and son.
On this site you’ll find information about my Books, Research, Publications, Teaching, as well as a copy of my CV .
You can also find me on PhilPapers, Academia.edu, and Google Scholar, but this site will always contain the most up-to-date information about my research and teaching.
You can also find me on twitter:
News:
'The Rationality of Love: Benevolence and Complacence in Kant and Hutcheson'
now published at Ergo.
'Why we should recover the philosophy of Christian Wolff'
just published at Aeon.
'Incentives of the Mind: Kant and Baumgarten on the Impelling Causes of Desire'
now forthcoming at Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie.
'Kant's Critique of Wolff's Dogmatic Method: Comments on Gava'
now published at Journal of Transcendental Philosophy.
Recent Talks:
Sep. 6–8, 2023
'Kant on Moral Impossibility'
Joint Conference of the UK Kant Society and the Hegel Society of Great Britain, St. Edmond Halle, Oxford University
Aug. 31–Sep. 2, 2023
'Locke and Popular Philosophy: Feder, Tittel, and the Rejection of a priori Cognition'
Rethinking Enlightenment: The Reception of John Locke in Germany, University of Mainz, Germany
Aug. 24–26, 2023
'Rehberg's Moral Theory'
'August Wilhelm Rehberg (1757–1836). Aufklärung zwischen Kritik und Tradition', University of Würzburg, Germany
Aug. 8–10, 2023
Comments on Susan Meld Shell, 'Republicanizing Leviathan: Kant's Cosmopolitan Synthesis of Rousseau and Hobbes'
'Hobbes and the Enlightenment', University of Regensburg, Germany
Upcoming Talks:
Jan. 10, 2024
'Johanna Charlotte Unzer (1725–82): Metaphysics for Women'
Women in Intellectual History Seminar Series, International Society for Intellectual History (Online)
Feb. 16, 2024
'Kant on Moral Impossibility'
Modality in Kant's Practical Philosophy, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Sep. 8–13, 2024
'Contradiction and the Will: Kant’s Formula of Universal Law in Context'
14th International Kant Kongress, University of Bonn, Germany