A Critical Overview of Basic Theoretical Perspectives on Some Historical Examples of Conspiracy Theories

The paper is an attempt to summarize and critically assess the main threads of research on conspiracy theories. The first part of the paper offers an analysis of theoretical frameworks developed within philosophy, political theory, sociology, the theory of history, anthropology and cultural studies. The main approaches to conspiracy theories are discussed through the lens of the anthropology of knowledge. The second part of the paper presents some historical examples of conspiracy theories in European context. The historical scope encompasses examples from the Middle Ages to the present. The authors sought to combine two commonly separated approaches to conspiracy theories – the particularistic and the universalistic. Having in mind that cross-disciplinary cooperation in the field of conspiracy theory research is usually an exception to the rule, and that the dialogue on contradictory findings and different methodologies is quite rare, the authors attempted to show that an interdisciplinary analytical prism – one relativistic (anthropological, particularistic) and one universalistic (historical) could be theoretically and methodologically beneficial to both disciplines.