Ian James Kidd’s keynote lecture on ‘Extremism, multidimensionalism, and myopia’ for the Extreme Beliefs Project at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.<\/p>\n
Ian James Kidd is an assistant lecturer in philosophy at the University of Nottingham. His research interests include topics in social and character epistemology – especially epistemic virtues and vices in relation to social and political institutions. He co-edited Vice Epistemology, Epistemic Vices: From the Individual to the Collective and The Routledge Handbook to Epistemic Injustice. His website is www.ianjameskidd.weebly.com.<\/em><\/p>\n The main claim of this talk is that many explanations of terrorist beliefs are myopic. I start by endorsing Quassim Cassam’s claim that explanations of extreme beliefs should be multidimensional in the sense of employing different kinds of explanation. I then argue that the opposite is too often true. Explanations of extreme beliefs are often myopic insofar as they rely on shallow and\/or narrow explanations of the origins, nature, persistence, functions, and attractions of extreme beliefs. I illustrate this claim using the example of ‘rational agency’ and ‘radicalisation’ models of terrorism. I end by suggesting that much myopia is motivated myopia and that this justifies a principle of cynicism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-7063","video","type-video","status-publish"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n