The Thesis
What is my thesis on?
The Death of Julius Caesar.
I kid, somewhat. Whilst I seem to use the example of the assassination of Julius Caesar an awful lot, my thesis isn’t really on any particular Conspiracy Theory but rather the class of Conspiracy Theories, which range from plausible explanations of events citing Conspiracies as salient causes to implausible cases.
I want to know if our prima face suspicion of Conspiracy Theories is justified.
We all know Conspiracies occur. We also know that there are more claims about Conspiracies than there are actual cases of Conspiracies, so it seems we must be, at least in part, slightly suspicious of Conspiracy Theories. This does not entail that we should treat them as being false; rather, it means we might have a justification for preferring non-Conspiracy Theories when we have the option.
My thesis, which is in Epistemology, deals with the issue of trying to work out what would make the inference to Conspiracy good; when we would be able to say ‘a Conspiracy occurred.’
I am neither a Conspiracy Theorist or a Conspiracy Sceptic; I am, to coin my own term, a ‘Conspiracy Theory Theorist.’ I am interested in the structure of Conspiracy Theories and how they work.
The thesis should be complete mid-2010.
