Conspiracy Theories and Evidential Self-Insulation

Conspiracy Theories and Evidential Self-Insulation. Napolitano, M. G. In The Epistemology of Fake News. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2021.

Paper doi abstract bibtex

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.

@incollection{napolitano_conspiracy_2021,
	address = {Oxford},
	title = {Conspiracy {Theories} and {Evidential} {Self}-{Insulation}},
	isbn = {978-0-19-886397-7},
	url = {https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/10.1093/oso/9780198863977.001.0001/oso-9780198863977-chapter-5},
	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.},
	language = {eng},
	urldate = {2022-05-17},
	booktitle = {The {Epistemology} of {Fake} {News}},
	publisher = {Oxford University Press},
	author = {Napolitano, M. Giulia},
	year = {2021},
	doi = {10.1093/oso/9780198863977.003.0005},
	keywords = {9 Post-truth, fake-news and sciences, PRINTED (Fonds papier), conspiracy theories, conspiracy-belief, conspiratorial explanations, evidence, irrationality},
}

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