Pasnau in Progress (October 2026)
Forthcoming Papers
Work in Progress
The English version of my book on the history of the freewill debate, focusing on later medieval voluntarism, will appear from OUP in 2027. Here is the table of contents and the introduction. A French version of the first half of the book, Construire la volonté, was published by Vrin in 2025.
Unpublished Papers
"Philosophical Beauty"
Does philosophy make progress? If so, why bother studying its history? The answer I offer here is that we should study it because it is beautiful. Written for the 2011 PhilProgress symposium at Harvard.
Unpublished Translations
- William Ockham, Summula philosophiae naturalis Book I
- A somewhat abridged translation of Book I, which contains what I regard as the best medieval introduction to the foundations of Aristotelian metaphysics. A version for students, with marginal annotations, is available here.
- John Buridan on identity over time:
- Two short, accessible examples of medieval metaphysics at its very best.
- Siger of Brabant, Questions on De anima Book III
- A complete translation, albeit rough and unchecked, including some suggested emendations to the text.
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Francisco Suarez, On Quantity (excerpt from Disputationes Metaphysicae XL).
- A translation, with facing Latin, of section 2 of Suarez's interesting account of the category of quantity,
where he argues against the nominalist's (esp. Ockham's) reductive treatment of quantity, and sketches his own view.
- Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle's De memoria et reminiscentia
- A rough translation of chapters two and three, based on the Leonine edition.
- Peter John Olivi, Questions on the Sentences, Book II
- These translations are revised versions of what appears in the appendix of my dissertation.
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Peter Auriol, Does an accident have an essence and reality that is bounded and complete? (IV Sent. d.12 q.1 a.1)
- A dense but rewarding discussion of the ontological status of accidents.
Unpublished Texts and Notes