Introduction

Conspiracy Theories Today: What Problems, what Solutions

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21750171
AutoresEmmanuelle Danblon (Free University of Brussels, GRAL (Belgium)), Lucie Donckier de Donceel (University of Palermo)
Año2024
Volumen33
Fecha de publicación2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaArgumentation et analyse du discours (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1565-8961 • E-ISSN: 1565-8961
EditorialOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/12hvc
OpenAlexW4403706952
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas23

For several decades, conspiracy theories 1 have been regularly denounced by all the disciplines that have taken up the phenomenon.Deemed obscurantist, superstitious, or simplistic, they have been singled out for their tendency to falsify facts in history, law, politics, and science; but they have also been pointed out as evidence of errors of judgment and reasoning.In the fallacious nature that they are acknowledged to have, they are said sometimes to be intended to deceive and sometimes to deceive themselves: they are supposed to reflect either malice or naivety.They are often seen as a symptom of the human mind's tendency to pander to its own prejudices, whether epistemic, ideological, or political.For a long time, these theories were seen either as a problem of access to quality information 2 (Sunstein & Vermeule 2009) or as a cognitive problem (Bronner 2013).These approaches always intervened downstream, i.e. once the damage had been done, through fact-checking and debunking.Recently, the trend has been reversed.On the one hand, conspiracy theories are no longer considered a form of stupidity (Loria, Iacone & Meini 2023).Secondly, the fight against these theories is increasingly being waged before they are disseminated in the public arena.Indeed, most research into conspiracy theories now seeks to understand the reasons for their "success".Furthermore, given the relative failure of fact-checking and debunking (Bronner 2022), conspiracy theory education practices are gradually turning towards pre-bunking (Lewandowsky & van der Linden 2021; Tisseron 2022).The objective is to prevent obscurantist temptation rather than cure it once it has taken hold.From this perspective, rhetoric and its technical methodology could play their part in the tremendous challenge that awaits us (Danblon 2020(Danblon , 2024)).Today, the scientific literature on conspiracy theories is as vast as it is varied (Butter & Knight 2020).Anyone wishing to venture into this field must equip himself with courage, perseverance, and discernment.But also, with a certain amount of humility

Epistemology · Sociology · Computer Science · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Philosophy