Dr. Jelscha Schmid

I work on German Idealism (Maimon, Fichte, Schelling) and sometimes Kant, with a particular focus on philosophy of mind and metaphilosophy.

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 investigate how Kant, Maimon, Fichte, and Schelling adapted methods from 18th-/19th-century natural sciences (e.g., experimentation, modeling, geometrical construction) 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 the University of Toronto. Previously, I was a Postdoc (“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.

Akademische Rätin, Universität Heidelberg, seit 2023

 

PostDoc, Universität Basel, 2020–2023

 

Gastassistentin in der Forschung, Yale University, 2018–2019

 

Promotion an der ETH Zürich mit der Arbeit „The Experiment of Reason: Kant, Maimon and Schelling on Metaphilosophy-first“, 2016–2020

 

Schmid, J. (2024) “From Kant to Maimon to Fichte”, in J. Kinlaw (ed.) Fichte’s Doctrine of Scientific Knowledge: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Schmid, J. (2022) The methods of metaphilosophy: Kant, Maimon, and Schelling on how to philosophize about philosophy. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.   

 

Schmid, J. (2021) “Philosophical fictions: Maimon’s methodological response to Kant”, in Himmelmann, B. and Serck-Hanssen, C. (eds.) The Court of Reason. De Gruyter, pp. 377–387.   

 

Schmid, J. (2021) “Fictions of systematicity: Maimon’s quest for a scientific method of philosophy”, Philosophers’ imprint, 21(36), pp. 1–21.   

 

Schmid, J. (2020) “»Es ist so, weil ich es so mache.« Fichtes Methode der Konstruktion”, in Klotz, C. and d’Alfonso, M. V. (eds.) Fichtes Bildtheorie im Kontext, Teil II. Systematische Funktionen des Bildbegriffs. Leiden: Brill Rodopi (Fichte-Studien), pp. 389–412. 10.1163/9789004422544_022.   edoc

 

Schmid, J. (2018) “Schelling’s method of Darstellung: Presenting nature through experiment”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 69, pp. 12–22. 10.1016/j.shpsa.2018.01.009.   edoc

 

Schmid, J. (2018) “Disordered existentiality: Mental illness and Heidegger’s philosophy of Dasein”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 17, pp. 485–502. 10.1007/s11097-017-9523-1.   edoc

 

Schmid, J. (2015) “Andreas Heinz: Der Begriff der psychischen Krankheit”, Zeitschrift für philosophische Literatur, 3(2), pp. 41–48. 10.21827/zfphl.3.2.35361.