ON BULLSHIT

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ON BULLSHIT
On Bullshit

Harry Frankfurt

Princeton University

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry.

In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. ... [continued]

www.jelks.nu/misc/articles/bs.html



Princeton University Press has now published this magnificent classic in book form (and additionally has a fascinating video interview with Mr. Frankfurt on its web site).

We highly recommend this poignant piece to those intelligent enough to understand its import to the current time ? and no doubt for centuries to come. Especially if one reads newspapers (or newsgroups), watches television "news" (or talk-shows), or listens to "experts" (or politicians) with that pernicious tendency to press the "Mute" button on the Critical Faculty ...

===================

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so
much bullshit," Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be
the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical
prose. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But
we tend to take the situation for granted." This compact little
book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to
articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge--what it is, what
it does, and why there's so much of it. The result is entertaining
and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can't be denied; part
of the book's charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic
academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the
word "bullshit." More pertinent is Frankfurt's focus on intentions--
the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting,
as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit
whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's
complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts
in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the
truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no
attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater
enemy of the truth than lies are."

On Bullshit (Hardcover)
by Harry G. Frankfurt

<tinyurl.com/cx3qn>


- , posted 08/02/05

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