I am a professional philosopher and a published author, concentrating on early modern philosophy and history of science.

My research interests lie in philosophical skepticism, early feminism, and theories of free will. I have also been conducting research in philosophy of paleontology, particularly history of paleontological findings and theories in the early modern period. 

I  received my PhD in 2021 from Tampere University, Finland. In my Doctoral dissertation, I offer novel reading of René Descartes’s (1596–1650) skepticism, arguing that skepticism in the Meditations is an attentive, meditational cognitive exercise that is not merely instrumental but is to have a genuine and serious (psychologically real) effect on our thinking, reorienting one’s cognitive framework to discover truth, certainty, and a way to a happy, tranquil, and virtuous life. While finalizing my PhD project in 2019, I was a Visiting Graduate Researcher for two-months at the University of California, Los Angeles.

From 2022-2024 I was working at the University of Iowa as a Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher and Adjunct Assistant Professor, and was the PI of Skeptical Influence of Early Modern Women Philosophers research project (funding by the Finnish Post Doc -pool funders Finnish Cultural Foundation and Alfred Kordelin Foundation). Currently, I am affiliated with Tampere University, Finland

I am also a highly experienced philosophy instructor with extensive international teaching experience for my academic stage from eight years at Tampere University, University of Iowa, and University of Oulu, both at bachelor’s and master’s level courses in philosophy. I am always working to make my teaching as inclusive as possible and try to include non-canonical, marginalized historical philosophers into the curriculum where ever I can.

Want to learn more?

See my Academic CV.

or

Get in contact: jan.forsman@tuni fi or jan-forsman@uiowa.edu