Even though important developments within 20th and 21st century philosophy have widened the
scope of epistemology this has not yet resulted in a systematic meta-epistemological debate
about epistemology's aims methods and criteria of success. Ideas such as the methodology of
reflective equilibrium the proposal to naturalize epistemology constructivist impulses
fuelling the sociology of scientific knowledge pragmatist calls for taking into account the
practical point of epistemic evaluations as well as feminist criticism of the abstract and
individualist assumptions built into traditional epistemology are widely discussed but they
have not typically resulted in the call for let alone the construction of a suitable
meta-epistemological framework.This book motivates and elaborates such a new meta-epistemology.
It provides a pragmatist social and functionalist account of epistemic states that offers the
conceptual space for revised or even replaced epistemic concepts. This is what it means to
refurbish epistemology: The book assesses conceptual tools in relation to epistemology's
functionally defined conceptual space responsive to both intra-epistemic considerations and
political and moral values.
