Conspiracy Theories and Evidential Self-Insulation

Item Type

Language

English

Abstract

What are conspiracy theories? And what, if anything, is epistemically wrong with them? This chapter offers an account on which conspiracy theories are a unique way of holding a belief in a conspiracy. Specifically, conspiracy theories are taken to be self-insulating beliefs in conspiracies. On this view, conspiracy theorists have their conspiratorial beliefs in a way that is immune to revision by counter-evidence. It is argued that conspiracy theories are always irrational. Although conspiracy theories involve an expectation to encounter some seemingly disconfirming evidence (allegedly planted by the conspirators), resistance to all counter-evidence cannot be justified on these grounds.

Subject

Evidence
Irrationality
Conspiracy theories
Conspiracy-belief
Conspiratorial explanations

Publication Title

Publication Year

2021

Publication Date

2021

Source

University Press Scholarship

License

ISBN

978-0-19-886397-7

Publication Place

Oxford

Citer cette ressource

Conspiracy Theories and Evidential Self-Insulation, dans Science & Ignorance, consulté le 21 Novembre 2024, https://ignorancestudies.inist.fr/s/science-ignorance/item/5051

Export