The effort to theorise experience reveals the preference of theory for order in the world—and not for the activities that tend to subvert and disrupt it. If this general statement suggests one reason for the oblique presence that the problem of conspiracy maintains within the history (and historiography) of political thought, it is not too difficult to adduce others.
Conspiracy in particular and subversion in general are mercurial phenomena that vary relative to the order they aim to undermine and that on occasions are absorbed into the order itself as forms of institutional opposition (as happened with political parties). The result has been the elision of a fundamental political concept: one that drove reflections about the state and government in the early modern period, informed political historiography, shaped interpretations of the French revolution, and provided a basis for theories of totalitarianism in the 20th century.
The workshop will attempt for the first time to develop a synoptic overview of the political thought focusing on conspiracy as an activity that unites subversion and collective agency yet whose status within political philosophy has often been as a mere corollary to the elaboration upon ideas of constitutional order.
It will shed light on some crucial junctures of this conceptual history and recover a rich tradition of political thought that found its earliest models in Sallust but projected its long shadow through Machiavelli, the libertins, Vico, Guizot, Malaparte, Arendt, Popper or Hofstadter.
In doing so, it also intends to bridge the gap that separates conspiracy and conspiracy theory, politics and psychology, event and representation, history and theory.
What today goes under the conceptual heading of conspiracy theories tends less to engage in reflection on subversion and more to lend itself to being an instrument of it. Recovering a capacity to understand these phenomena politically and in a long-term perspective is all the more pressing since the old principles of political order, which only recently were regarded as secure and beyond question, can no longer be taken for granted.
REGISTRATIONS
Please note that the event will be held in Sala degli Stemmi and in hybrid mode.
Places are limited, kindly pre-register for on-site attendance using the register button below.
If you wish to participate remotely, contact Alba Parrini in order to receive the zoom link.
Remote participation is reserved to EUI researchers and COST network members.
PROGRAMME
Thursday, May 19
10:15 – 11:15 Introductory remarks: Andrew McKenzie-McHarg (ACU / IRCI) and Nicolas Guilhot (EUI)
Victoria Emma Pagàn (University of Florida), Sallust and the Conspiracy Theory of Society
11:15 – 11:45 Coffee break
11:45- 13:15 Morning Session.
Moderator: Brian Berge (Syracuse University)
Speakers:
Marta Celati (Università di Pisa), The topic of conspiracy in humanist political thought: a new model of princely state between theory and history;
Jérémie Barthas (CNRS), Machiavelli, the constitutional reform of 1522 and the conspiracy against Giulio de’ Medici
13:15 – 14 :15 Lunch break
14 :15 - 15:45 Moderato: Hugo Drochon (University of Nottingham)
Speakers:
Pauline-Elise Blistene (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Conspiracy or ‘coup d’État’? On Gabriel Naudé
Felix Waldmann (ACU), John Locke, the old pretender, and conspiracy, 1688-1704
15:45 – 16:00 Coffee break
16-17:30 Moderator: Ben Carver (EUI)
Speakers: David Armando (ISPF-CNR, Naples), From Orléans to Satan: development, differentiation, and heritage of the myth of the revolutionary plot;
Michael Mark Cohen (University of California, Berkeley), The pluck of invisible strings : from conspiracy to theory in American intellectual history, 1830 to 1960
Friday, May 20
9:30 - 11:00 Moderator: Pauline-Elise Blistene (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Alfred Moore (York), Out of the game: cartels and competition in Schattschneider's theory of democracy
Hugo Drochon (University of Nottingham), Conspiracy and Democracy from Machiavelli to the Machiavellians
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 Conclusion and next steps