Michael Walschots

Welcome!

I'm a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Milan, Italy, where I'm Assistant PI on the ERC-funded project 18ETHICS: Ethics and Moral Life in the 18th Century (https://18ethics.unimi.it/), led by Prof. Stefano Bacin.

Before coming to Milan I held various postdoctoral positions in Germany, Scotland, and Canada:

• from 2023–25 I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in philosophy at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, where I was part of the project: 'Rethinking Enlightenment: The Reception of John Locke in Germany.'

• from 2021–23 I was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in philosophy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, where I worked on my book project Kant and the British Moralists. 

• from 2019–21 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. 

• from 2018–19 I was Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

• and from 2016–18 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. 

My research explores how 17th- and 18th-century philosophers approached a variety of issues in meta-ethics, normative ethics, moral psychology, and practical reasoning. Several of my publications have sought to better understand Kant’s ethics by placing him in dialogue with his eighteenth-century contemporaries and predecessors. More recent projects of mine have explored topics such as the concept of ‘moral obligation,’ the relationship between Kant’s philosophy and his thoughts on race, as well as the writings of the ‘first female German philosopher,’ Johanna Charlotte Unzer.

I received my Ph.D. in Philosophy from Western University in London, Ontario, Canada in early 2016.

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