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Research keywords:
Political Philosophy; Critical Theory; Marxism; Trust
Dissertation title:
Critique of Conspirational Reason
Dissertation abstract:
My dissertation addresses the current proliferation of conspiracy theories and their political function. The dissertation is structured in two main parts. In the first part, I inquire into the nature of conspiracy theories by analyzing the crisis of liberal democracies. That analysis follows two main lines of argumentation. On the one hand, I provide an examination of the concept of trust and its role in modern political thought. Here I address the fundamental question of the conditions for trust and what it means to live in a distrust society. On the other hand, I address the crisis of liberal democracy through a political-psychological study of paranoia. Here I pursue an avenue opened up by Freud's seminal work on "mass psychology," carried further by Bataille, Reich, and Adorno, to think about the fascist personality. By interpreting the crisis of liberal democracy through the notions of (dis)trust and political paranoia, I offer an account of the origin and meaning of the currently pervasive mode of conspirational reason. In the second part of my dissertation, I focus on the awkward proximity between "critical theory" and "conspiracy theory." Conspiracy theories are critical enterprises in the sense that they attempt to unveil some injustice or evildoing. Similarly, critical theory has often been accused of being conspirational or even paranoiac. I address here the embarrassing question: What precisely distinguishes critique and conspiracy theorizing?
Email:
pimet023@newschool.edu