Freiman, Ori

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Review: Cass R. Sunstein. Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas. 304 pp. Simon & Schuster, 2014

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Review: Cass R. Sunstein. Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas. 304 pp. Simon & Schuster, 2014.

A review of Cass R. Sunstein's Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Idea

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Review Article: Cass R. Sunstein, Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas. 304 pp. Simon & Schuster, 2014

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REVIEW: Cass R. Sunstein, Conspiracy Theories and OtherDangerous IdeasAuthor(s): Ori FreimanSource: Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophyof Science, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2016) 100-104.Published by: The University of TorontoDOI: 10.4245/sponge.v8i1.21013E D I T O R I A L O F F I C E SInstitute for the History and Philosophy of Science and TechnologyRoom 316 Victoria College, 91 Charles Street WestToronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1K7hapsat.society@utoronto.caPublished online at jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/SpontaneousGenerationsISSN 1913 0465Founded in 2006, Spontaneous Generations is an online academic journal publishedby graduate students at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Scienceand Technology, University of Toronto. There is no subscription or membershipfee. Spontaneous Generations provides immediate open access to its content onthe principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greaterglobal exchange of knowledge.ReviewsCass R. Sunstein. Conspiracy Theories andOther Dangerous Ideas. 304 pp. Simon andSchuster*Ori Freiman†Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein is a prolific author knownto the law community mostly for his writings on administrative law andpublic policy. In fact, he is so prolific that similar to Erdős number in the fieldof mathematics, the term Sunstein number was coined in legal scholarshipto reflect the degrees of separation an author is away from collaboratingwith Sunstein (Edelman and George 2007). Sunstein (and sometimes hisco-authors) were highly regarded in certain sub-fields for developing andusing concepts and ideas such as cascades, group polarization, libertarianpaternalism, and more, which penetrated the vocabulary of those realms. Tothe general public, he is probably most known as the administrator of theWhite House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (2009 to 2012).This book is a collection of eleven previously published works, revisedfor this publication. Such revisions make his ideas easier to read and thusmore accessible. Being a collection of essays, this book’s weaknesses are alsoits strengths: some of the ideas are explained more than once. Furthermore,besides the two ending chapters, all other chapters deal with distinct issueswhich do not always internally relate. Taken as a whole, this collectionprovides an overview of the different realms Sunstein dealt with which raisedcriticism and dissent. Each of the chapters, even if read separately, can bean intriguing read in and of themselves.The first chapter, “Conspiracy theories,” originally co-authored withHarvard professor Adrian Vermeule (Sunstein and Vermeule 2008), isprobably the most revised article in this collection. The controversial articleis now so revised that Vermeule’s name was removed from this chapter,* Received March 19, 2013. Accepted April 13, 2014.† Ori Freiman is a Ph.D. student at the Graduate Program in Science, Technology, andSociety at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He works in social- and techno-epistemology,philosophy of science and philosophy of technology. His dissertation deals with therelationship between knowledge and technology. He is also interested in the socialepistemology of rumors, urban legends, gossips, and conspiracy theories.Spontaneous Generations 8:1 (2016) ISSN 1913-0465. University of Toronto.Copyright 2016 by the HAPSAT Society. Some rights reserved. 100O. Freiman Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideasthough he is deeply thanked and credited for the development of thecentral argument. The revision, now containing a bit of humor, traces themechanisms of how conspiracy theories arise and spread, and suggests actionsthat can be taken to prevent their dissemination. It argues that when we areable to know how conspiracy theories arise, we will be able to understandthe dynamics of the dissemination of other kinds of false rumors and falsebeliefs. Sunstein argues that groups which advocate conspiracy theoriesought to be infiltrated and undermined by government agents. This ideagarnered controversies and critical responses were raised (e.g. Hagen 2010;Coady 2012; Griffin 2010). Besides being provocative, this chapter can beused as an introduction to his thoughts on rumors and speculations, theconcepts of group polarization, and of information, reputation, availability,and emotional cascades.The chapter “The Second Bill of Rights” (Sunstein 2004) recommendsconnecting social rights with laws and policies while balancing between freemarkets and government interventions. In the chapter “If ‘misfearing’ is theproblem, is cost-benefit analysis the solution?” (Sunstein 2013), a defense ofthe criticized (mainly by the left) process of cost-benefit analysis, is offered.The defense is based on dealing with the problem of misfearing—when people,policy makers, and the ordinary political dynamics reflect fear of trivial risksand neglect serious ones. This problem generates misallocations of publicresources—when they are devoted to the wrongly-focused problems.The chapter “The laws of happiness” (Sunstein 2008b) uses insights fromrecent work in the social sciences dealing with the nature of subjectivewell-being to offer suggestions to improve fiscal and regulatory policies andthe legal system. “The rights of animals” (Sunstein 2003) discusses animalautonomy, asking whether animals are property. The argument is thatrepresentatives of animals (such as their owners) should be able to bringprivate lawsuits to ensure that anti-cruelty and related laws are actuallyenforced. The chapter “Marriage” (Sunstein 2005) presents an analysis ofvarious issues regarding marriage and its interpretation through recenthistorical verdicts. It concludes that, in principle, there is no convincingconstitutional defense of the ban on same-sex marriage. The chapter “Sexequality versus religious freedom?” (Sunstein 1999) settles the tension foundbetween religious institutions and application of the law forbidding sexdiscrimination. The chapter “Climate change justice” (Sunstein and Posner2008) is co-authored with Eric A. Posner—a respected University of ChicagoLaw School professor. It argues that contrary to common belief, the normalframework of distributive and contributive justice hardly fit to currentsolutions offered to the climate change problems. “A New Progressivism”(Sunstein 2006) presents Sunstein’s understanding of the appropriate role ofgovernment.Spontaneous Generations 8:1(2016) 101O. Freiman Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous IdeasThe only two obviously-related chapters, “Minimalism” (Sunstein 2008a)and “Trimming” (Sunstein 2009), deal with approaches of how to balancebetween various competing views. In “Minimalism,” the grounds of andlimitations to avoiding broad pronouncements or theoretical ambitions inlaw, politics, and everyday life, are explored. The minimalists’ ways tend toleave the biggest and most foundational issues undecided, avoiding ruling ondecisions that reach far beyond the case at hand. Minimalists tend to focuson solving only the particular issues in dispute, leaving remaining problemsto be faced by posterity.In contrast, trimmers decide now. The final chapter, “Trimming,” offersan attempt not to avoid, but to steer, between competing positions andextreme poles. While some trimmers steer to the middle by compromising,some preserve, evaluate and scrutinize what is essential to competing butreasonable positions. Although trimmers face problems and challenges, insome domains decision makers find trimming as the more attractive approachbetween the alternatives.This diverse selection of articles includes those written for differentaudiences at different times. To those who are familiar with Sunstein’swriting, it will be no surprise to encounter his very clear style. The ideas,especially those which are explored in depth, are carefully built and phrased,offering understandable and down-to-earth lines of thought that can beimplemented in real-life policy. Read as a whole or not, this book containsdeep ideas in simple language.Those who are interested in Sunstein’s biography will probably find thepreface to the collection interesting. In the customary introduction of thevarious book chapters, Sunstein adds a personal account of various difficultieshe encountered, such as the unexpected notoriety he faced during his positionat the White House and the animosity that some of these articles originallygenerated. Moreover, in the past, Sunstein declined to answer reporters’questions about views he expressed, and in this preface he justifies his declineby drawing a comparison between the administrator who works in the publicsphere and the academic scholar. He also shares with the reader what hewould have changed in the articles if he had written them from scratch.It would have been a great addition if Sunstein had added notes about eacharticle’s criticism or dissent. But biographies of articles are probably materialfor a book in itself.Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas is quite a tricky titlefor this collection. Conspiracy theories—the protasis of this title, derivesfrom (probably the most) controversial article which became the openingchapter. The apodosis of the title—other dangerous ideas, derives from adescription Sunstein received as “the most dangerous man in America”by Glenn Beck, a television and radio political commentator. With thisSpontaneous Generations 8:1(2016) 102O. Freiman Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideasbook’s title, Sunstein embraced and reappropriated this nickname, turningthe pejorative description into his own kind of wit: to him, probably, thiscollection contains nothing that could be labeled as a conspiracy or as adangerous idea. In fact, it is easy to see Sunstein’s perspective underpinningthe different chapters in this collection: He considers the extreme views,and then locates his own ideas away from them. Though the ideas found inthese various chapters are only supposedly-dangerous to anyone who is notextreme, they are, no doubt about it, challenging, debatable and provocative.Ori FreimanThe Graduate Program in Science, Technology, and SocietyBar-Ilan UniversityRamat Gan 52900Israelori.freiman@biu.ac.ilReferencesCoady, David. 2012. Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorists, InWhat to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues.Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 110-137.Edelman, Paul H. and George, Tracey E. 2007. Six Degrees of Cass Sunstein:Collaboration Networks in Legal Scholarship. Green Bag 2d 11(1): 19.Griffin, David Ray. 2010. Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee’s Plan toUndermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory. Interlink Books.Hagen, Kurtis. 2010. Is Infiltration of ‘Extremist Groups’ Justified? InternationalJournal Of Applied Philosophy, 24(2): 153-168.Sunstein, Cass R. 1999. Should Sex Equality Law Apply to Religious Institutions?Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Okin, Susan Moller (ed.), PrincetonNJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 85-94.Sunstein, Cass R. 2003. The Rights of Animals. University of Chicago Law Review70: 387-401.Sunstein, Cass R. 2004. The Second Bill of Rights: FDR?s Unfinished Revolutionand Why we Need It More Than Ever. New York: Basic Books.Sunstein, Cass R. 2005. The Right to Marry. Cardozo Law Review 26(5): 2081-2120.Sunstein, Cass R. 2006. A New Progressivism. Stanford Law and Policy Review17: 197-232.Sunstein, Cass R. 2008a. Beyond Judicial Minimalism. Tulsa Law Review 43(4):825-841.Sunstein, Cass R. 2008b. Illusory Losses. The Journal of Legal Studies 37(S2):S157-S194.Sunstein, Cass R. 2009. Trimming. Harvard Law Review 122(4): 1049-1094.Spontaneous Generations 8:1(2016) 103O. Freiman Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous IdeasSunstein, Cass R. 2013. ￿￿If Misfearing Is the Problem, Is Cost-Benefit Analysis theSolution?￿￿ The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy, ed. Shafir Eldar.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 231-244.Sunstein, Cass R. and Posner, Eric A. 2008. Climate Change Justice. GeorgetownLaw Journal 96(5): 1565-1612.Sunstein, Cass R. and Vermeule, Adrian. 2008. Conspiracy Theories: Causes andcures. Journal of Political Philosophy 17(2): 202-227.Spontaneous Generations 8:1(2016) 104

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Review: Cass R. Sunstein. Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas. 304 pp. Simon & Schuster, 2014

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