ABSTRACT
It is misleading to call cognitive theory at large “epistemology” or “the theory of knowledge.” For its range of concern includes not only knowledge proper but also rational belief, probability, plausibility, evidentiation and-additionally but not least-erotetics, the business of raising and resolving questions. It is this last area-the theory of rational inquiry with its local concern for questions and their manage ment-that constitutes the focus of the present book. Its aim is to maintain and substantiate the utility of approaching epistemological issues from the angle of questions. As Aristotle already indicated, human inquiry is grounded in wonder. When matters are running along in their accustomed way, we generally do not puzzle about it and stop to ask questions. But when things are in any way out of the ordinary we puzzle over the reason why and to seek for a explanation. And gradually our horizons expand. With increasing sophistication, we learn to be surprised by virtually all of it. We increasingly want to know what makes things tick-the ordinary as well as the extraordinary, so that questions gain an increasing prominence within epistemology in general.
