The Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism

Project Information

EXTREME

Grant agreement ID: 851613

DOI

10.3030/851613

Project closed

EC signature date 5 December 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 493 875,00

EU contribution

€ 1 493 875,00

Coordinated by

STICHTING VU
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EXTREME (The Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In this project, I and my team have built a philosophy of extreme beliefs as we find them in fundamentalist movements, but equally in radical conspiracist, fanaticist, extremist, and terrorist movements. Such extreme phenomena have been studied in detail by fields like criminology, sociology, psychology, and history, but philosophy has been remarkably absent from this endeavor. This matters, because philosophy can play two crucial roles in the study of extreme belief and behavior: (i) it can ask new questions, such as the question of how explaining extremism relates to understanding it and what the moral and epistemic limits are to understanding extremism, and (ii) it can help in building a scientific paradigm for the study of extreme belief and behavior.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In general
- We were able to realize all work packages

Team:
- I recruited all the team members
- Moreover, I made sure numerous further researchers joined the team, such as external PhD's, interns, and associate members; the full list can be found here: https://extremebeliefs.com/people/
- I supervised various BA and MA theses
- We set up the website (www.extremebeliefs.com)
- We had monthly research group meetings and monthly reading groups

Publications:
- We published 7 volumes with leading academic presses
- We published 70 papers in leading academic journals
- We had 2 PhD defenses and a third (by the project PhD) will take place this October
- We organized 27 lectures and 12 conferences, including all the five workshops that were scheduled for this project
- We gave 112 English lectures on the topic and 36 Dutch ones
- Perhaps most important: the Extreme Belief and Behavior book series proposal with OUP (7 volumes) was accepted. 3 volumes will be published by late 2025, 6 by late 2026 and 7 by early 2027. This series will present the main ideas of the project, in close cooperation with numerous internationally leading scholars (150 or so)

Outreach:
- We published 10 opinion pieces and book reviews
- Books for a larger audience in Dutch
- We had 23 interviews, blogs and podcasts
- We closely cooperated with intelligence and security services, providing input to policy documents
- We have been consistently visible in the public national and international debate
In the outreach activities, we addressed the scientific anthropology of fundamentalists and extremists, arguing that they are often remarkably normal people would are relatively mentally healthy and who think and act no less rationally than other people. We have shown how fundamentalism can be properly distinguished from related phenomena such as extremism, fanaticism, radical conspiracy theorizing, and terrorism. We have also shown what taking extremists seriously amounts to and what the ethical, methodological, and epistemological opportunities and limits are in doing so.

Per work package/subproject:

Summary per work package

Subproject 1: Conceptualizing Fundamentalist Belief
In this subproject, we developed an account of how (not) to use the concept of fundamentalism. In doing so, we relied on the values in science debate. We also developed an epistemology of fundamentalist belief. In various articles, we also explored to what extent fundamentalist belief can be rational. This project, thus, contributed to a better understanding of how to use the concept of fundamentalism and to how we should conceptualize fundamentalist belief, for instance, in explanations of fundamentalism.

Subproject 2: Individual and Group Fundamentalist Belief
In this subproject, we studied how group fundamentalist belief differs from individual fundamentalist belief. We showed how this matters, for instance, to better understanding the relation between cognitive and behavioral radicalization, as the correlation may be much higher on a group level than on an individual level. It also matters for the social epistemology of extremism, as state extremism had at least as much impact in the twentieth century as individual extremism.

Subproject 3: Obligations Regarding Fundamentalist Belief
In this subproject, we studied which obligations fundamentalists violate. But we also, unexpectedly, investigated what obligations academics have regarding fundamentalists and extremists in order to better understand them and their movements. We argued that we ought to take them seriously in research, taking their testimonies as prima facie (but not indefeasible) evidence. We also explored various ethical, methodological, and epistemological limits that one encounters in doing so. Such taking seriously and listening comes, for instance, with instrumental empathy but not full-blown emotional empathy.

Subproject 4: Excuses for Fundamentalist Belief
In this subproject we explored various excuses for fundamentalism and fundamentalist belief in particular. We developed philosophical accounts of propaganda and indoctrination. We zoomed in mostly on moral excuses, but we also paid attention to legal excuses.

Subproject 5. Synthesis: An Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism
The synthesis that we provided combines epistemological, ethical, and empirical work on fundamentalism and other kinds of extreme belief and behavior. The result is various articles and a monograph (the 7th volume in the Oxford University Press Extreme Belief and Behavior Series) in which we provide an account of how extreme belief relates to extreme behavior. We illustrate various claims by showing how this works for religious fundamentalist and extremist belief.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The major progress that this project contributed to was the development of elements of a new paradigm. This new paradigm for studying extreme belief and behavior has five elements. First, there is the normalcy hypothesis: extreme believers and actors, such as fundamentalists, conspiracy theorizers, and violent extremists, are usually psychologically and psychiatrically as normal or healthy and rational as nonextreme believers and actors. Second, to better conceptualize, describe, understand, explain, and perhaps even predict extreme belief and behavior we need to adopt not just a third-person approach—one in terms of, say, failed states, social isolation, or discrimination of marginalized groups —but also a first-person approach: one that entails listening carefully to what extreme believers and actors themselves narrate about their experiences, grievances, beliefs, desires, emotions, goals. Third, the projects of defining, conceptualizing, operationalizing, describing, understanding, explaining, predicting, and preventing extreme belief and behavior are all inherently normative and thus require study of the subjectivity of extremists, academics, and policy makers in interaction with one another. Fourth, we can understand radical conspiracy theorizing, extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism better if we study them in relation to one another rather than in isolation. Fifth, we ought to study radical conspiracy theorizing, extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism from a truly interdisciplinary perspective that encourages and facilitates conversation between different disciplines and methods.

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