After Certainty

A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions

Robert Pasnau

Provides a narrative of the development of our thinking about knowledge from antiquity to today
Written in a succinct and accessible style
Each chapter makes substantial philosophical arguments, alongside plotting the development of epistemology throughout history

After Certainty

A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions

Robert Pasnau

Description

No part of philosophy is as disconnected from its history as is epistemology. After Certainty offers a reconstruction of that history, understood as a series of changing expectations about the cognitive ideal that beings such as us might hope to achieve in a world such as this. The story begins with Aristotle and then looks at how his epistemic program was developed through later antiquity and into the Middle Ages, before being dramatically reformulated in the seventeenth century. In watching these debates unfold over the centuries, one sees why epistemology has traditionally been embedded within a much larger sphere of concerns about human nature and the reality of the world we live in. It ultimately becomes clear why epistemology today has become a much narrower and specialized field, concerned with the conditions under which it is true to say, that someone knows something.

Based on a series of lectures given at Oxford University, Robert Pasnau's book ranges widely over the history of philosophy, and examines in some detail the rise of science as an autonomous discipline. Ultimately Pasnau argues that we may have no good reasons to suppose ourselves capable of achieving even the most minimal standards for knowledge, and the final chapter concludes with a discussion of faith and hope.

After Certainty

A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions

Robert Pasnau

After Certainty

A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions

Robert Pasnau

Author Information

Robert Pasnau is professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the founding editor of Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy and the author of many scholarly books and articles on the history of philosophy and its contemporary manifestations. His 2011 book Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 traced the breakdown of Aristotelianism and the rise of early modern metaphysics. In 2014 he gave the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at Oxford University, which now appear as After Certainty.

After Certainty

A History of Our Epistemic Ideals and Illusions

Robert Pasnau

Reviews and Awards

"[Pasnau's] command of the historical literature--primary and secondary--is extremely impressive, especially with regards to his specialty: the medieval period. The notes in particular offer a wealth of information and provide enough substance for me to heartily recommend this book." -- Kevin Meeker, Mind

"After Certainty is two excellent epistemology books in one. This book is both an elegant argument for--and potential corrective to--that regrettable truth." -- Stephen Hetherington, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

"a stimulating, readable synopsis of more than two millennia of epistemological thought . ... [I] wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the history of epistemology" --Sydney Penner, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews