This special issue of Synthese is in honor of Gerhard Schurz, our good friend and colleague, who contributed to philosophy in a multitude of novel and interesting ways. The idea to do such a special issue was born at a symposium on the occasion of Gerhard's 60th birthday back then in 2016. As a fun fact, the final publication of the special issue in print might be quite close to his 65th birthday in 2021. So in some sense this special issue can be expected to kill two birds with one stone. Let us start this introduction with a few words on Gerhard's life and work and on the guest editors' own relationship to him. We then zoom in and will say more about this special issue, followed by a brief description of its content.