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Faassen, Eric (2025)

Conspiracism: a return to Popper

Master thesis | Philosophy (MA) (60 EC)
This thesis is a philosophical exploration into the definition and vices of conspiracy theories. It asks what is wrong with explanations that are commonly qualified as ‘conspiracy theories’. It argues that the available literature on this subject fails to provide an adequate definition of conspiracy theories and therefore is not able to fully analyse their defects. It proposes a ‘return to Popper’ by reviving Karl Popper’s conception of the ‘conspiracy theory of society’ as a worldview that underlies conspiracy theories. Combined with some of Popper’s later work on scientific reductionism, it develops the analysis that conspiracy theories are in fact not proper theories, but the result of a closed worldview that precedes theoretical thought.
conspiracy theories
conspiracism
Karl Popper
conspiracy theory of society
Author
Faassen, Eric
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities
Specialisation
Modern European Philosophy
Supervisors
Chouraqui, F.
ECTS Credits
10
Language
en