Massimo Caon

Conspiracy theories have been increasingly gaining attention in academic research during the last decades; this interest is partly due to the relevant role that the spread of these theories has played so far inside contemporary democracies. International scholarship has been discussing several theoretical frameworks to foster comprehension of conspiracy theories’ complex nature and possible solutions that democratic institutions might put in place to cope with this phenomenon; what often emerges from this debate is that contemporary democracy is in urgent need of epistemic guidance to distinguish the variety of epistemic perspectives (including certain forms of conspiracy theories, I will claim) that nourish democratic communication from antidemocratic conspiracy theories. This article aims at contributing to this discussion by introducing the notion of ‘epistemic distance’; more specifically, I will claim that this concept can successfully integrate Nadia Urbinati’s distinction between pragmatic and systemic conspiracism.