Conrad Damstra

Postdoctoral Research Associate

I received my PhD from Brown University. I am interested in historical approaches to ethics, moral psychology, and the philosophy of religion, with a particular focus on Kant, German Idealism, and early modern European philosophy. My dissertation examined the topics of evil, moral character, and moral reform in Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and his later Critical writings.  

I have two main research projects. The first examines the social and historical dimensions of moral reform in Kant’s thought. I will argue that, in Kant’s view, our moral development can be facilitated by social institutions and the virtuous activity of others. The second examines how Kant’s successors in the German Idealist tradition, including Schelling and Fichte, responded to his account of radical evil. I intend this work to form the basis for a broader examination of evil and moral development in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophical and religious thought.