Robert Pasnau is a contemporary American philosopher at the University of Colorado Boulder, specializing in the history of philosophy from the medieval period through early modernity and in epistemology. He is best known for bridging scholastic and early modern thought, challenging the narrative of a sharp break between medieval and modern philosophy. His work on epistemic ideals examines how the pursuit of certainty shaped—and ultimately distorted—philosophical inquiry.
Authored Metaphysical Themes 1274–1671, a landmark study connecting medieval and early modern metaphysics
Authored After Certainty (2017), arguing that the epistemic ideal of apodictic knowledge was historically anomalous and that probabilistic knowledge is the norm
Authored Thomas Aquinas on Human Nature (2002), a comprehensive analytic treatment of Aquinas's philosophy of mind and body
Edited the two-volume Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
Revived scholarly attention to scholastic theories of cognition, perception, and the ontology of qualities