The Conspiracy Theory of Ignorance in the Classical Sociology of Knowledge
The Conspiracy Theory of Ignorance in the Classical Sociology of Knowledge

Summary/Abstract: Before Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge and Marx’s theory of ideology, there was an Enlightened proto-sociology of error and prejudice which, in its emphasis on deliberate priestly deception, provides one of the main examples of ‘the conspiracy theory of ignorance’ as conceptualized by Popper. This paper follows the development of the sociology of knowledge from that starting point, in order to examine how authors like Marx, Lukács, Mannheim and others have theorized an almost perfect, self-working machinery of ideological reproduction which can be used in conspiracy theories simply by reinstating intentionality in the creation and management of such device.

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