Kierkegaard argued that genuine knowledge requires courage, not just evidence—and this project asks whether the same principle exposes a hidden flaw in how we dismiss conspiracy theories. Philosophers from Descartes onward have treated radical scepticism—the idea that we might know nothing at all—as a purely intellectual puzzle requiring a theoretical answer. This project challenges that assumption by recovering Kierkegaard’s overlooked insight: doubt is an existential condition, not just a logical one. It then asks an uncomfortable question: if radical scepticism is taken seriously in academic philosophy, while global conspiracy theories are dismissed as irrational, what justifies the difference? If something is wrong with conspiracy theories, is something equally wrong with radical scepticism? And if we cannot dismiss radical scepticism, can we similarly not dismiss conspiracy theories? The research is fundamental, not applied. It will not produce a vaccine or a policy tool. But it addresses a gap in virtue epistemology—the connection between intellectual courage and knowledge remains entirely unexplored—and it applies that gap to a pressing cultural problem: the loss of faith in expertise during the pandemic. If successful, the project could reshape how philosophers, educators, and public commentators think about the relationship between intellectual vice, doubt, and the spread of misinformation.
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While the ancient sceptics regarded scepticism about knowledge as a way of life, philosophers from Descartes to the present day have viewed it primarily as an intellectual problem that requires only a theoretical solution. This project intends to challenge this common assumption by focussing on a figure almost entirely overlooked by mainstream epistemology: Soren Kierkegaard. Core aims of the project are: *To bring Kierkegaard's existential epistemology into dialogue with the contemporary mainstream, in particular in respect to the relation between the intellectual vices, such as a lack of intellectual courage, and various forms of scepticism. Although virtue epistemology is currently a booming topic, the connection between intellectual courage and knowledge remains entirely unexplored, both within epistemology itself as well as in wider cultural debates. *To examine the similarities between radical scepticism (the thought that we may know nothing about the world) and global conspiracy theories. Since radical scepticism is taken very seriously in epistemology, while conspiracy theories tend to be dismissed, this raises the questions: If something is wrong with global conspiracy theories, is something equally wrong with radical scepticism? Conversely, if we cannot dismiss radical scepticism, can we similarly not dismiss global conspiracy theories? *To apply Kierkegaard's insight that knowledge requires courage to a central challenge of our time: loss of faith in knowledge, expertise and authority. Never has such an investigation been more pressing than in the current pandemic, which has given rise to an unprecedented surge in conspiracy theories and 'fake news'. The project will deliver ground-breaking results along three dimensions: historical (Kierkegaard's existential response to doubt), theoretical (the relation between intellectual vice and scepticism), and applied (the relation between intellectual courage and knowledge scepticism in the wider culture).
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