Jelscha Schmid

My research focuses on Early Post-Kantian philosophy (Maimon, Fichte and Schelling), and occasionally on Kant. I am particularly interested in their philosophies of mind and the intersection between their metaphilosophies and philosophies of science. Other interests include feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and various topics in the philosophy of psychology and psychiatry.

My current research project focuses on Fichte’s philosophy of mind as developed within his practical Jena philosophy, with particular attention to the questions of self-constitution, personal identity, and the problem of other minds in its various forms (i.e., epistemological, conceptual, and moral). I connect Fichte’s thought to contemporary debates in the philosophy of mind and metaethics (esp. concerning the second-person), as well as to phenomenological approaches that emphasize intersubjectivity and embodiment (esp. Merleau-Ponty & Stein).

I also continue to investigate how Kant, Maimon, Fichte, and Schelling adapted methods from 18th-/19th-century sciences (e.g., experimentation, modeling, geometrical construction, pragmatic history writing) to address metaphilosophical problems. As part of this project, I combine studies on the history of science with contemporary debates in the philosophy of science and metaphilosophy.

I am currently a Visiting Fellow at Potsdam University. Previously, I was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Toronto and an Assistant Professor (“Akademische Rätin”) at Heidelberg University (a position I will resume in August 2026). I completed my doctorate at ETH Zurich, spending one year at Yale University as a Visiting Assistant in Research.