The Rise of Conspiracy Theories

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I know that you have a new book coming out on conspiracy theories. Is this is there an increase in the acceptance of conspiracy theories? Is that hand-in-hand with the acceptance of bullshit? Well, this is a really interesting question I mean, of course everyone thinks that conspiracy theories are more popular now than they have ever been. But it's not even clear that the people who put these theories forward have necessarily believed them. It's worth actually pausing to reflect on the distinction between the people who invent and promote these theories and Consumers of these theories.

All of us have been wrong about things from time to time. But sometimes it was a simple, forgivable mistake, while other times we really should have been correct. Properties that systematically prevent us from being correct, and for which we can legitimately be blamed, are “intellectual vices.” Examples might include closed-mindedness, wishful thinking, overconfidence, selective attention, and so on. Quassim Cassam is a philosopher who studies knowledge in various forms, and who has recently written a book Vices of the Mind: From the Intellectual to the Political. We talk about the nature of intellectual vices, how they manifest in people and in organizations, and what we can possibly do to correct them in ourselves.

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Quassim Cassam received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford University. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He previously held faculty positions at Cambridge University and University College London. He has served as the president of the Aristotelian Society, and was awarded a Leadership Fellowship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK.

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