Genealogical Echo-Chambers: A Diagnostic and Normative Account or: how I learned to stop worrying about myths and embrace my epistemic anxiety

Echo-chambers are becoming increasingly widespread in our everyday reality - from political disputes to the so-called culture wars, polarised groups of believers are seemingly unable to change their minds whilst engaging in public disagreement. Echo-chambers are also becoming increasingly compelling, with more and more people attracted to reified worldviews which offer no room for opposing viewpoints. Recent academic research in philosophy has delved into the phenomenon of echo chambers (Begby, 2020; Elzinga, 2020; Nguyen, 2020; Ranalli & Malcom, 2023). However, there are two issues which remain under-explored - what makes an echo-chamber more successful in compelling and maintaining popular support than others, and whether, as well as how, an agent is able to resist joining one that they already find compelling. The aim of this thesis is to address these two interlocking issues by firstly providing a diagnostic account of the power of echo-chambers, and secondly a normative account of how we ought to act if we find ourselves in their grip. In Chapter A, I survey the current literature and argue that it lacks fine-grained diagnostic and normative accounts that correspond to our epistemic reality, as well as motivate the benefits of having such accounts. In Chapter B, I propose a novel account of echo-chambers I call genealogical echo-chambers: echochambers which rely on genealogical narratives for their epistemic aims. I argue that my account is able to sufficiently address the diagnostic aim by introducing a way to understand the relative power of different echochambers. In Chapter C, I argue that my account is also able to provide subjectively-accessible action-guiding reasons for someone on the grip of an epistemically problematic echo-chamber to know when to resist joining it, thereby fulfilling the normative aim of the thesis.