Doctoral Candidate Martín Mercado Vásquez

Martin Mercado Vásquez is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy at Heidelberg University, supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Fuchs. His dissertation, The Embodied Person: A Phenomenological Investigation into the Constitution of the Human Person through the Relationship between the Embodied and Narrative Self, explores the ontological unity of the human person as a dynamic interplay between embodiment and narrativity. His research critically engages with and challenges central paradigms such as naturalism, culturalism, and posthumanism, aiming to provide a contemporary framework for understanding the human condition. 

After earning a degree in Philosophy (2012) and a Master’s in Latin American Literature (2014) at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in Bolivia, he conducted research as a DAAD Fellow at the University of Rostock (2019–2020), focusing on the role of the body in Hermann Schmitz's New Phenomenology. He later completed a Master’s degree in Transdisciplinary Research at the Public University of El Alto (2023), where he analyzed the phenomenological understanding of illness and psychopathology. 

His research interests include phenomenological anthropology, embodiment, the embodied and narrative self, as well as enactive and genetic phenomenology. Grounded in phenomenology, his work bridges fields such as narratology, biographical research, and the philosophical foundations of psychopathology.