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SUMMARY:Useful Idiots: On the Democratic Virtues of Conspiracy Theories - 
 Alfred Moore
DTSTART:20141029T130000Z
DTEND:20141029T140000Z
UID:TALK54960@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:DJ Goode
DESCRIPTION:Conspiracy theories are often regarded as individual cognitive
  failings and collective pathologies of public reason. In this paper I wil
 l argue for the democratic benefits of conspiracy theories. There are two 
 main groups of ways in which conspiracy theories can contribute to democra
 tic goods. One is epistemic\, and it has to do with the collective benefit
 s of having some one-eyed partisans who focus obsessively on criticising t
 he arguments of their opponents\, resist consensus even when it would be r
 easonable to accept it\, and who may bring valuable information to light i
 n the course of pursuing unpromising lines of inquiry. The second is polit
 ical\, and it has to do with demanding communicative accountability\, infl
 uencing the behaviour of power holders\, and revealing second-order reason
 s for trusting (or distrusting) authorities. The upshot of these arguments
  is that the presence of stubborn minority opinions of the sort often repr
 esented by conspiracy theorists can create conditions for greater trustwor
 thiness and more informed judgment of public authorities. What these argum
 ents have in common is that none of them depend on the conspiracy theorist
 s being right\, and they are all conditional on the marginality of conspir
 acy theories. Conspiracy theories\, I conclude\, are like salt in the soup
  of public discourse - good in small doses. The benefits evaporate to the 
 extent that conspiracy theories come to be held by majorities\, and conspi
 racy theories become most dangerous when they are in the minds of the powe
 rful.
LOCATION:Combination Room\, Wolfson College
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