Well, this week has been all about the Buzzcocks. Well, not exactly. Not even close; it’s more ‘The Damned’ if we’re going for punk of that era. Anyway, what I meant to say is that this week has been all about terminology, specifically Conspiracy Theory terminology.
I’m now drafting what I would like to call `Chapter One: Talking About Conspiracy Theories Non-conspiratorially.’ I’m going through the epistemologists of Conspiracy Theories in a kind of chronological order; Popper (from ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies), then Keeley’s three papers, then Charles, et al. Rather than track the terms themselves I’m tracking how particular thinkers have used them, show how they have (or haven’t) changed their views over time and, from this, will go on to explain how I think the terminology should be set down.
I’ve been looking forward to writing this chapter for some time now. I get to show how well I understand the existing literature and critique it all in one go. The scary part will be trying to a) make something novel and coherent out of my own thoughts and intutions upon the subject and b) working with some of the new material from the Episteme issue. Some of the newer papers seem blissfully unaware of the existing literature…
More news as it comes to hand.