The Future of the Philosophy of Conspiracy Theory: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Conspiracy Theory Theory

ABSTRACT

Looking at the early work in the philosophy of conspiracy theory theory, I put in context the papers in this special issue on new work on conspiracy theory theory (itself the product of the 1^st International Conference on the Philosophy of Conspiracy Theory held in February 2022), showing how this new generation of work not only grew out of, but is itself a novel extension of the first generation of philosophical interest in these things called ‘conspiracy theories’.

KEYWORDS:

• Conspiracy theory
• conspiracy theory theory
• generalism
• particularism

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all the contributors to the 1^st International Conference on the Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories, with special thanks to Brian L. Keeley, Julia Duetz and Matt Shields for finding the typos in this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The question as to whether conspiracy theories are more salient or pertinent in contemporary public discourse, of course, might best be resolved with respect to empirical work; what I am arguing here is that if we think conspiracy theories seem more common despite the survey work suggesting they are not, then that suggests (strongly I would argue) that what we are seeing is people being more inclined to express (or indulge in) their conspiracy theories than previously seen.

2. See my other article in this very issue for some discussion on what ‘some’ might mean (forthcoming).

3. This potted history does not cover all the development of the current consensus; left out of the discussion here are debates as to whether conspiracies are sinister or merely suspicious states of affairs (Basham 2011; Dentith 2014), the role of surprise parties (Basham 2011; Dentith 2014; Keeley 1999), and what exactly the secrecy condition of conspiracy entails (Dentith and Orr 2017).

4. Which is not to besmirch the other papers presented at the conference; if I could have included them all I would!

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M R. X. Dentith

M R. X. Dentith is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the The International Center for Philosophy at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai. Their chief research interests surround the epistemic analysis of conspiracy theory, as well as rumours, fake news, and the epistemology of secrets.