José Ángel Gascón on “What’s wrong with conspiracy theories? Rationality and plausibility beyond the stigma”

Since Popper’s remarks about the “conspiracy theory of society” in the mid-20th century, conspiracy theories have had a very bad reputation. The proliferation of absurd conspiracy theories in the 21st century has contributed to this trend. In this article, however, I will discuss the main arguments that have been presented to defend the thesis that conspiracy theories, as a whole, are unjustified, and I will show that they are not convincing. Moreover, I will argue that the common use of the term “conspiracy theory” has epistemic and political implications that are problematic. Contrary to what is commonly assumed, we should not reject explanatory hypotheses solely because they refer to conspiracies.

José Ángel Gascón (Universidad de Murcia)

To join the session on Zoom, please get in touch with Giulia Terzian at giuliaterzian@fcsh.unl.pt for the details.

This event is part of the ArgLab Research Colloquium organised by Maria Grazia Rossi, Giulia Terzian and Gloria Andrada at the Laboratory of Argumentation, Cognition and Language of the NOVA Institute of Philosophy. For any inquiries, please contact Maria Grazia, Giulia, or Gloria.

Event supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia) of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science under the projects UIDB/00183/2020 and UIDP/00183/2020.