The Return of the Conspiracy Theory of Society

• In Event: Democracy in the Post-Truth, Post-Knowledge Era

Abstract

Karl Popper famously identified an intellectual tendency to ascribe intentionality to political events - even when the best and most plausible explanations for such events are that they are deeply contingent and/or unintended consequences. This 'conspiracy theory of society' has weathered particularly well. It is increasingly reinforced by empirical findings in the fields of political behaviour, opinion polling, and social psychology. It is therefore at least possible that it is this *assumption of intent* that gives rise to the polarised, tribal, and epistemically troubled contemporary political situation.

An updated version of Popper's theory offers a possible analytical framework for understanding the contemporary democratic world - marked, as it it is, by diagnoses of public ignorance, radical causal uncertainty, and 'post-truth politics'. This paper will offer the beginnings of such an update, contextualising the need for the 'conspiracy theory of society' against a broader backdrop that includes renewed emphasis on a consequentialism that takes into account emergent, spontaneous, and unintended outcomes.

Author

• Simon T Kaye, King's College London