Warranted Belief/CT

A warranted conspiracy theory is defined as a theory that has reasons as to why the theory is allowed to be believed, based off of correct information. Another definition to that is being justified in believing the theory. According to Keeley, his short definition of a warranted conspiracy theory is that “the truth is out there… but we ought not necessarily believe every- thing which is, in fact, true.” He explains it as even though somethings are believed to be true, we might not want to believe in them. Another way to look at warrant is having proof of believing in that specific theory. Even though people want to believe in the specified theory, having proof is necessary of a warranted belief. Without warrant, anything can be a conspiracy theory. Without warrant, it is to be believed in an unwarranted conspiracy theory. The only problem with a warranted belief, is that if you really want to believe in a theory, you would want the evidence to be warranted. Even if the theory is believed to be unwarranted, you would want to believe it to be true whether it is or not. Keeley discusses the conspiracy theory of the Watergate and Iran-Contra Affair and how they portray the criteria of a warranted conspiracy theory. Keeley explains that even though these theories meet the criteria, they are only “prima facie warranted,” of which there is no set definition for the difference between a priori warranted theory and an unwarranted one. The Watergate scandal was an example of a warranted belief because the things that were said of the scandal were of truth, or at least to be easily believed. The justification was that Nixon was believed to have covered up his tracks of the scandal to not be a part of the situation. People were convinced that the scandal was Nixon’s fault. Since it was believed by many people, and there were reasons to believe that it was Nixon, that makes it a warranted belief. For this particular theory, it was nefarious, because it did deal with someone of higher power. Nixon was believed to do it for his own good, and in which he won his election at that time. That gave people the reasonings of why Nixon was believed to have committed the nefarious act.

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