Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously

267 Pages·2018·129.798 MB·English

by  M R. X. Dentith

Taking Conspiracy
Theories Seriously
COLLECTIVE STUDIES IN KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIETY
Series Editor: James H. Collier is Associate Professor of Science and
Technology in Society at Virginia Tech.
This is an interdisciplinary series published in collaboration with the Social
Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. It addresses questions arising
from understanding knowledge as constituted by, and constitutive of, existing,
dynamic and governable social relations.
The Future of Social Epistemology: A Collective Vision, edited by James H. Collier
Social Epistemology and Technology: Toward Public Self-Awareness Regarding
Technological Mediation, edited by Frank Scalambrino
Socrates Tenured: The Institutions of 21st Century Philosophy, Adam Briggle and
Robert Frodeman
Social Epistemology and Epistemic Agency, edited by Patrick J. Reider
Democratic Problem-Solving: Dialogues in Social Epistemology, Justin Cruickshank
and Raphael Sassower
The Kuhnian Image of Science: Time for a Decisive Transformation?, edited by Moti
Mizrahi
Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously, edited by M R. X. Dentith
Overcoming Epistemic Injustice: Social and Psychological Perspectives, edited by
Benjamin R. Sherman and Stacey Goguen (forthcoming)
Taking Conspiracy
Theories Seriously
Edited by
M R. X. Dentith
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
www.rowmaninternational.com
Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd. is an affiliate of Rowman & Littlefield
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA
With additional offices in Boulder, New York, Toronto (Canada), and Plymouth (UK)
www.rowman.com
Selection and editorial matter © M R. X. Dentith 2018
Copyright in individual chapters is held by the respective chapter authors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: HB 978-1-7866-0828-4
PB: 978-1-7866-0829-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dentith, Matthew R. X., 1977- editor.
Title: Taking conspiracy theories seriously / edited by Matthew R. X. Dentith.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield International, [2018] | Series: Collective
studies in knowledge and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018035886 (print) | LCCN 2018038022 (ebook) | ISBN
9781786608307 (electronic) | ISBN 9781786608284 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781786608291 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Conspiracy theories—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC HV6275 (ebook) | LCC HV6275 .T35 2018 (print) | DDC
001.9—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035886
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
M R. X. Dentith
SECTION ONE: THE PARTICULARIST TURN IN THE
PHILOSOPHY OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES 1
1 When Inferring to a Conspiracy Might Be the Best Explanation 3
M R. X. Dentith
2 Conspiracy Theory and the Perils of Pure Particularism 25
Patrick Stokes
3 Conspiracy Theory Particularism, both Epistemic and Moral,
Versus Generalism 39
Lee Basham
4 What Particularism about Conspiracy Theories Entails 59
M R. X. Dentith
SECTION TWO: DIAGNOSING CONSPIRACY THEORY
THEORISTS 71
5 The Conspiracy Theory Theorists and Their Attitude to
Conspiracy Theory—Introduction to Section Two 73
M R. X. Dentith
6 The Psychologists’ Conspiracy Panic: They Seek to Cure Everyone 79
Lee Basham and M R. X. Dentith
v
vi Contents
7 Social Scientists and Pathologizing Conspiracy Theorizing 95
Lee Basham
8 Governing with Feeling: Conspiracy Theories, Contempt, and
Affective Governmentality 109
Ginna Husting
9 Conspiracy Theorists and Social Scientists 125
Kurtis Hagen
10 Clearing Up Some Conceptual Confusions about Conspiracy
Theory Theorizing 141
Martin Orr and M R. X. Dentith
11 To Measure or Not to Measure? Psychometrics and Conspiracy
Theories 155
Marius Hans Raab
12 Anti-Rumor Campaigns and Conspiracy-Baiting as Propaganda 171
David Coady
13 On Some Moral Costs of Conspiracy Theory 189
Patrick Stokes
14 Conspiracy Theories, Deplorables, and Defectibility: A Reply to
Patrick Stokes 203
Charles Pigden
.de 15 Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously and Investigating Them 217
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se M R. X. Dentith
r sth
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ir llA Bibliography 227
.la
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o Index 241
ita
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tn About the Contributors 249
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Acknowledgments
This book principally owes itself to James Collier, former editor of the Social
Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (SERRC), who suggested that
the fruitful exchanges about conspiracy theory and conspiracy theory theory,
which appeared in the pages of the SERRC, would make for a good volume
on the topic. Of course, it also goes without saying that the book also owes
itself to the contributors to that set of exchanges—Kurtis Hagen, Lee Basham,
Martin Orr, and Patrick Stokes—and the new contributors—Charles Pigden,
David Coady, Ginna Husting, and Marius Hans Raab—without whom this
book would be an empty vessel.

.d This book is also the by-product of a project I undertook at the Institute
e
vre for Research in the Humanities (ICUB-IRH) at the University of Bucharest
se
r sth (Romania), and thus that institution can be held partially to blame or praise
g
ir llA for the text. Much of the substance of my contributions to this volume was
.la developed while I was in Bucharest from September 2016 to September 2017.
n
oita Especial thanks, then, to Mihnea Dobre and Iulia Nitescu for their support
n
re for my work there. I also cannot stress how much help and support I received
tn
I dle from my fellow Fellow Timothy Tambassi (even if his greatest creation—the
ifelttiL pita pizza—made me think that there was something deeply wrong in the
& world that even my theory of conspiracy theory could not possibly explain)
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m and Giulia Lasagni (who shared with me the horror of Timothy’s attempt to
w
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R rewrite the nature of pizza itself).
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10 For my own part I want to dedicate this book to my Aunt Dorothy, who would
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© th have thought this book was fabulous and, who as the literal red-headed stepchild
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iryp of the family, taught me the secret of naughty-naughty time. I think my getting
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C to write on both conspiracy theory and conspiracy theory theory would have
made her very chuffed. I also cannot help but mention my partner-in-crime,
H. O. Ransome: you are one hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.

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Introduction

M R. X. Dentith

This book began as a series of productive exchanges in the pages of the
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, where a number of
contributors grappled with some of the more interesting aspects of conspiracy
theory theory (the theory of conspiracy theory). I say “more interesting”
because conspiracy theory and conspiracy theory theory are, I would argue,
interesting in their own right. After all, whether you think we live in an age of
conspiracy theories, or that they are a problem in search of a cure, conspiracy
theories and the study of such theories has been, and is, a fertile playground
for philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists (as the contributors to this
.d volume admirably attest to). However this volume takes conspiracy theory
e
vre seriously in a way that much of the recent literature has not; we are advo-
se
r sth cating not just that we take conspiracy theory seriously as a topic of study, but
g
ir llA also that conspiracy theories themselves should not be dismissed just because
.lan they have been pejoratively labeled as “conspiracy theories.”
oita This volume consists of both adapted and new material. Some of the
nre chapters—by Kurtis Hagen, Lee Basham, Martin Orr, Patrick Stokes,1 and, of
tn
I dle course, myself—further the arguments and themes originally published in the
ifelttiL journal of the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. Others—by
& Charles Pigden, David Coady, Marius Hans Raab, and Ginna Husting—are
n
a
m unique to this volume.
w
o
R The volume also consists of two parts, the first of which may well come
.8
10 across as a little vainglorious. Section One begins with a reprint of my art-
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© th icle “When Inferring to a Conspiracy Might Be the Best Explanation,” which
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iryp was first published in Social Epistemology (2016b). This led James Collier,
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C then editor of the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, to
commission a series of reply pieces from Lee Basham and Patrick Stokes.
Their dueling replies ended up focusing on a specific question in conspiracy
ix