The concept of "Justification" governs rational discourse so thoroughly that questioning it seems impossible — which is precisely the problem. In this book the author traces the legal metaphors and circular logic at the heart of this paradigm across epistemology, ethics, and argumentation theory. He introduces the "Non-Justification-Stance" as a cooperative, open-ended approach to argumentation that replaces the logic of claim and refutation with a richer account of what it means to give reasons at all.

Leonhard Schütz-Bauer is an external lecturer in philosophy at the University of Vienna. His research focuses on: theory of argumentation, meta-philosophy and historical meta-epistemology.