Gerhard Schurz is Professor for Philosophy at the University of Düsseldorf, where he previously hed the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy (2002-2022). He was formerly Associate Professor at the University of Salzburg and Visiting Professor at the University of California at Irvine and at Yale University. Gerhard Schurz is the author of ten books and more than 250 research papers in the fields of philosophy of science, epistemology, logic, cognitive science, and metaethics. He was President of the German Association for Philosophy of Science (2016-2022). Since 2019, he is member of the Leopoldina (National Academy of Sciences in Germany) and of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science.

• Introduction


• 1: Knowledge and Justification


• 2: Foundation Theory and Its Alternatives: A Critical Discussion


• 3: Foundation-theoretic Epistemology I: Internalism and Minimal Basis


• 4: Foundation-theoretic Epistemology II: Conditional Justification and Noncircularity


• 5: Foundation-theoretic Epistemology III: Optimality Justifications


• 6: Justification of Inductive Reasoning


• 7: From Optimal Inductive Methods to Optimal Beliefs


• 8: Justification of Logics and Conceptual Frameworks


• 9: Abductive Inference to Theories


• 10: The Justification of Theory-Generating Abduction


• 11: Conclusion and Outlook


• Mathematical Appendix

Optimality Justifications argues for a renewal of foundation-theoretic epistemology based on optimality justifications, ways of showing that certain epistemic methods are optimal with regard to all accessible alternatives. Gerhard Schurz offers a range of new ideas for epistemology, philosophy of science, and cognitive science.