Profile and Career

Career

My name is Jan Kerkmann, and I am currently a Privatdozent (Lecturer with Habilitation) in Philosophy at the University of Freiburg. I completed my B.A. in Philosophy and Modern German Literature in 2014 and received my M.A. in Philosophy in 2016.

From the outset, my work has focused on the history of philosophy, particularly German Idealism and post-Idealist thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My current research spans the major periods of the philosophical tradition—from Antiquity and the Early Modern period to classical modern philosophy—and concentrates on themes in metaphysics, political philosophy, and philosophy of nature.

In my doctoral dissertation (summa cum laude; supervised by Prof. Dr. Lore Hühn and Prof. Dr. Andreas Urs Sommer; published by De Gruyter in 2020), I examined Heidegger’s interpretation of the history of metaphysics and his extensive engagement with Schelling and Nietzsche.

Habilitation

My habilitation thesis (De Gruyter, 2023) continues this sustained engagement with the history of philosophy and investigates the development of epistemological idealism from Berkeley through Kant to Schopenhauer. In addition to my doctoral dissertation and habilitation, I have authored four further monographs in the field of intellectual history, edited eight collected volumes—primarily in political philosophy—and published more than forty scholarly articles.

I also serve as co-editor of four interdisciplinary philosophical book series that reflect my principal research interests: Political Thought in Europe (Nomos, with Dr. David Manolo Sailer); Grundbegriffe des Menschseins (De Gruyter, with Moritz Pretzsch); Schriftstücke: Contributions to Philosophy and Literary Studies (Parodos, with Dr. Rainer Barbey); and Metaphysical Reconsiderations (Brill, with Moritz Pretzsch).

Research Stays

Since completing my habilitation in 2023, I have held research appointments at several distinguished institutions, including the University of Cambridge (Feodor Lynen Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation), Aarhus University in Denmark (DAAD), Freie Universität Berlin (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation), and most recently the University of Oxford. Since January 2026, I have been affiliated with Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, as an Academic Research Scholar.

These research stays, which have been particularly important for deepening my engagement with European intellectual history, have enabled the establishment of international collaborations and the development of research projects at a high scholarly level.

Teaching

Since 2018, I have taught courses covering the full breadth of the philosophical tradition, ranging from the Sophists and Plato to Hobbes, Spinoza, Schelling, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Emanuele Severino. In my teaching, I place particular emphasis on tracing philosophical questions, concepts, and principles across both continuities and discontinuities in intellectual history.

The historiographical methodology of the Cambridge School has further shaped my approach by sensitising me to the careful reconstruction of concepts within their original historical contexts. My pedagogical aim is to engage students actively in the investigation of major philosophical problems and influential solutions from the history of philosophy, while also demonstrating their relevance for contemporary philosophical debates. At the same time, I seek to encourage critical reflection on the established canon of philosophical texts and traditions.

Current Research Project

One of my current research projects examines the transformation of the concept of God in early modern philosophy through the thought of George Berkeley and Baruch de Spinoza. I argue that, in this context, the concept of God should be understood not primarily as a theological notion but as an epistemological principle of structure and intelligibility. The project aims to reconstruct this development as a decisive step toward the functional reinterpretation of fundamental metaphysical concepts in modern philosophy and to explore its systematic significance.

More broadly, my research is motivated by the question of how a speculative metaphysics that lays claim to timeless validity and eternal truth can be articulated within an age of historically self-conscious philosophical reflection. The search for a way of reconciling metaphysics and historicity—through nuanced, substantial, and philosophically rigorous argumentation grounded in a comprehensive knowledge of the philosophical tradition—represents for me a lifelong intellectual task, one that approaches the challenge of “squaring the circle.” The continued exploration of this problem remains a central driving force of my philosophical work.

In pursuing this project, I seek neither to reproduce uncritically the anti-metaphysical assumptions characteristic of our age nor to affirm metaphysics as a dogmatic academic discipline detached from existential concerns and human experience.

Personal Interests

Outside academia, I am a passionate long-distance runner and have achieved a marathon personal best of 2:27.

Academic memberships

• Member of the German Society for Philosophy.
• Member of the Goethe Society in Weimar e.V.
• Member of the Goethe Society in Weimar e.V.
• Member of the Spinoza Society e.V.