Of Conspiracy Theories

“rces [57] and tendency to believe unsubstantiated or false claims [43]. Previous studies stress that the need for justifying or explaining events forms the very foundation for conspiratorial thinking [30, 42, 62, 64]. For example,van Prooijen et al. found that people feel the need to detect patterns or “connect the do…”

“UCTs, therefore, should “warrant a degree of scepticism, rather than outright dismissal” (Keeley 1999: 118).”

“Keith Harris has recently argued for this approach, citing kindred observations from other philosophers (Feldman, 2011; Keeley, 1999).21 We can stipulate that the concept refers to “only those theories that run counter to the official account of some target event” (Harris, 2018, p. 237).”

“(Keeley 1999, 116) Keeley additionally notes a few things about this definition.”

“Conspiratorial thinking from individuals explains political or historical events through references to “the machinations of powerful people” (Aaronovitch 2010; Byford 2011; Coady 2019; Dentith and Orr 2018; Jerit and Zhao 2020; Keeley 1999; Sunstein and Adarian, 2009).”

“If the in fl uence of such “ theories ” had been underestimated in past decades (Keeley, 1999), the increasing use of social media and the weaponization of false information now require multiple disciplinary perspectives to explain the topic (Douglas et al., 2019; Shahsavari et al., 2020).”

“The particularist position does not deny the irrationality of many conspiracy theories, its main point is that just because some explanation is a conspiracy theory does not thereby require its irrationality (Keeley 1999).”

“This is how I define the concept in (Keeley 1999, 116ff) and subsequent work.”

“However, con‐ spiracy theories in a narrower sense are often unwar‐ ranted (Keeley, 1999): They typically oppose common knowledge (counter‐hegemonical) and are immune to counter‐evidence.”

“As far as I can tell, the first mention of something resembling epistemic preemption (not under this label) as a means of the spread of CTs goes back to Keeley (1999): By invoking a conspiracy hypothesis, large amounts of ‘evidence’ are thrown into question.”

“Like the world itself, they are made up of too many people with too many different agendas to be easily controlled’ (1999, 124).”

“The theory expanded over time to include FBI agents, other federal agencies, and members of the press (Keeley 1999, 122).”

“‘Conspiracy theories’ are explanations of events or phenomena that attribute their main cause to a group of conspirators acting in secret for their own benefit and against the public good (Keeley 1999; Räikkä 2018).”

“Based on these de fi nitions, this study de fi nes conspiracy theory as the explanation by reference of the secret machi-nations of a small group of people who usually have a certain level of power (Keeley, 1999; Sunstein and Vermeule, 2009; Dentith, 2014; March and Springer, 2019).”

“For example, Keeley (1999) defined a conspiracy theory as a “proposed explanation of some historical event (or events) in terms of the significant causal agency of a relatively small group of persons” (p. 116; see also Douglas et al., 2019).”

“CTs also contain claims about errant data (Keeley 1999) like events not explained by the received view or events which actually contradict claims made within the received view.”

“…observed that ancient aliens theory is a bit like a conspiracy theory, they seem unaware of relevant philosophical discussion of the structure of conspiracy theories (Keeley 1999; Basham 2003; Keeley 2003).4 We offer an analysis of ancient alien narratives that combines ideas from both disciplines.”

“See for example, Keeley (1999), Coady (2003), Basham (2003), Hagen (2020), and Dentith (2014).”

“Most of the time, conspiracy theories contradict each other (Wood et al., 2012), but because these theories are not falsifiable (Keeley, 1999), ‘conspiracy believers do not seem to evaluate specific stories in their own merit, but they rather tend to accept the whole package’ (Brothertorn et al.,…”

“…conspiracy theories have been studied for years (for overviews, see Van Prooijen and Douglas, 2018; Uscinski, 2018), and different de fi nitions have been promoted (for instance Keeley, 1999: 116 – 118; Douglas and Sutton, 2018: 256 – 259; Uscinski, 2018: 235 – 236; Douglas et al., 2019: 4 – 5).”

“There are various ways to further cash out this idea (see, e.g., Cassam, 2016; Keeley, 1999; Levy, 2007; Nguyen, 2020).”

“To maintain a ‘unified explanation’ accounting for the ‘ordered universe’ (Keeley, 1999: 119–23) – which is seen as ‘governed by design’ (Barkun, 2003: 3) – conspiracy theories exhibit three pseudoscientific traits: first, they are ‘highly selective both in their approach to evidence and in…”

“The study began with the creation of a list of keywords based on Keeley ’ s (1999) de fi nition of conspiracy theory: a speci fi c explanation of an event that attributes signi fi cant causal agency to a relatively small group of individuals — the conspirators — acting covertly to achieve their aims.”

“…explanations of (natural, historical and social) events through the lens of secret plots that are contrived by a small, but pivotal group of people (Keeley, 1999), and trust — de fi ned as ‘ a willingness to expose vulnerability to a trustee based on positive expectations that it will not be…”

“Despite popular belief, conspiracy theories are usually backed by copious amounts of evidence, employing what Keeley (1999) has called “errant data” made of contradictory or unaccounted-for information, and various claims tying together unrelated people and events.”

“However, it has proven difficult to formulate criteria which would differentiate between warranted and unwarranted conspiracy theories (Keeley, 1999; Pauly, 2020).”

“As a typical form of infodemic, conspiracy theories see significant social and political events as results of secret plots between powerful agents (Keeley, 1999).”

“Before addressing Keeley and Grimes, it is worth noting that, after Douglas et al. claim that conspiracy theories tend to fail, the very next sentence asserts: “When conspiracies fail – or are otherwise exposed – the appropriate experts deem them as having actually occurred” (Douglas et al. 2019: 4). In support of thi…”

“According to the particularist, we cannot assess conspiracy theories as a class but, rather, conspiracy theories should be assessed on a case-by case basis (Basham, 2018; Coady, 2012; Dentith, 2016, 2019; Keeley, 1999).”

“…the term can be applied to any theory that “explains the ultimate causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors” (Aaronovitch, 2010; Coady, 2006; Dentith & Orr, 2017; Keeley, 1999; Sutton & Douglas, 2020, p. 118).”

“Conspiracies theories typically involve a secret — but powerful — group seeking to enact (and cover up) “ invariably nefarious ” social or political change (Keeley, 1999).”

“A narrative as such explains and oversimplifies a complex and interdependent world (Moore 2016, 4) for the ‘last believers in an ordered universe’ (Keeley 1999, 123).”

“In making this argument, Uscinski and Enders draw largely on philosophers like Coady (2003), along with MRX Dentith (2018, 2019), and Brian Keeley (1999, 2007), who have questioned the commonplace assumption that conspiracy theories are plainly false or irrational.”

“More recently, among others, Brian Keeley (1999; 2007), Michael Wood and Karen Douglas (2018) Bradley Franks, Adrian Bangerter and Martin Bauer (2013), and Glenn Bezalel (2021) claimed that there are important analogies between the structure of religious worldviews and conspiracy theories.”

“This change is ‘ invariably nefarious ’ and is obscured by an o ffi cial explanation or ‘ cover story ’ , to borrow from Keeley (1999).”

“…debate is that, at least insofar as conspiracy theories are defined as theories that posit conspiracies , it is difficult to condemn belief in con-spiracy theories as rationally criticisable in general (Basham 2003; Coady 2007, 2018a, 2018b; Dentith 2016, 2018a; Keeley 1999; Pigden 1995, 2007).”

“…against ‘unwarranted conspiracy theories’ (UCTs) was made by Brian Keeley, who argued that UCTs suffer from the generalized fault that they entail an ‘almost nihilistic degree of skepticism and absurdism’ by disputing the trustworthiness of official institutions on a grand scale (Keeley 1999, 125).”