Lee Basham asks how I define “conspiracy theory.”[1] I have a rather broad-church definition: I use the phrase to mean any theory that posits a conspiracy. I do not think a theory needs to be implausible, fringy, or false to… Read More ›
Critical Replies
Critical Replies are engagements with articles recently published in Social Epistemology.
Walker and the Fiction of Conspiracy Theory as “Fringe”, Lee Basham
Jesse Walker is a prolific and accomplished writer with the Reason Foundation, a group associated with a certain Nozick-like political-economic libertarianism and a general impatience with skepticism about our underlying political and economic systems in the West. It’s encouraging to… Read More ›
Conspiracy Theory as Public Intelligence: A Reply to Keeley, Lee Basham
While passing through Grants, New Mexico, you will see haunting bumper stickers. The town is for the most part the picture of poverty. But there is a powerful back-story, the near-by Ambrosia Lake Uranium mines. The old, local restaurants, now… Read More ›
Science vs. Scientism in Consciousness Research: A Reply to Ann-Sophie Barwich, Philip Goff
I am very grateful to Ann-Sophie Barwich for taking the time to comment on my work in her paper ‘Between Electrical Light Switches and Panpsychism: Scientism and the Responsibilities of the Humanities in the Twenty-First Century’ (2022; unless otherwise stated… Read More ›
When Is a Conspiracy Theory a Conspiracy? Jesse Walker
It has been nearly a decade since I wrote this passage, which Brian Keeley quotes in his discussion of the folk use of “conspiracy theory”:[1] People started using the phrase “conspiracy theory” to mean “implausible conspiracy theory,” then “implausible theory,… Read More ›
Echo Chambers and Social Media: On the Possibility of a Tax Incentive Solution, Megan Fritts
In “Regulating Social Media as a Public Good: Limiting Epistemic Segregation” (2023), Toby Handfield tackles a well-known problematic aspect of widespread social media use: the formation of ideologically monotone and insulated social networks. Handfield argues that we can take some… Read More ›
The Value of Shooting at a Plane with a Rifle: A Reply to Dennis Masaka, Part II, Xabier Renteria-Uriarte
Planes and Aircraft Carriers: Laws, Language, Education or Mass Media Supporting ‘Our State is a Nation-State’ At the time of the French Revolution, only half the population of France spoke varieties of present-day French, and only 10% spoke what resembled… Read More ›
The Value of Shooting at a Plane with a Rifle: A Reply to Dennis Masaka, Part I, Xabier Renteria-Uriarte
Abstract Does it make sense to shoot a rifle at a plane moving away in the sky? Moreover, does this action make sense when the plane is supported by the tanks, warships and aircraft carriers of a powerful regular army?… Read More ›
Issues about the Paradox of Demonstrating Acts of Intellectual Humility, Noel L. Clemente
Brian Robinson’s (2023) response to my paper (Clemente 2023) raised a number of important issues regarding what I described as the modeling paradox of teaching intellectual humility (IH). He questioned two crucial concepts—what I take IH to be, and what… Read More ›
Defending Wokeness: A Response to Davidson, J. Spencer Atkins
Lacey J. Davidson (2023) raises several insightful objections to the group partiality account of wokeness. The paper aims to move the discussion forward by either responding to or developing Davidson’s objections. My goal is not to show that the partiality… Read More ›