Michael Walschots

Welcome!

I'm 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 Western University in London, Ontario, Canada in 2016.

I work primarily in the history of modern philosophy, especially during the eighteenth century. My primary interest is the moral philosophy of this period 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. More generally speaking, I have broad interests in meta-ethics, moral psychology, and practical reasoning.

When I’m not reading and writing about philosophy I’m either cooking, baking, or going on adventures with my wife and son.