Why We Should Stop Talking about Generalism and Particularism: Moving the Debate on Conspiracy Theories Forward

It is highly unusual for philosophers to agree about anything. And yet, philosophers of conspiracy theories seem to have achieved this remarkable feat. For more than a decade, a campaign has been waged against a position called “generalism”. Originally coined by Joel Buenting and Jason Taylor (2010), but later enthusiastically adopted by M R. X. Dentith (2023), Lee Basham (2018), Charles Pigden (2018), J.C.M. Duetz (2022) and many others, this refers to the view that there is something intrinsically wrong with conspiracy theories as a general class. Or as their original definition has it, generalists hold that “the rationality of conspiracy theories can be assessed without considering particular conspiracy theories” and that “conspiratorial thinking qua conspiracy thinking is itself irrational.”
Most philosophers have now converged around [...]