On Bullshit
I stumbled upon a book of essays by philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt, The Importance of What We Care About. In it, there is an essay called "On Bullshit", which of course was the reason behind this impulse buy.
"Say Anything" by Jim Holt in the New Yorker.
The bullshitter opts out of this game altogether. Unlike the liar and the truthteller, he is not guided in what he says by his beliefs about the way things are. And that, Frankfurt says, is what makes bullshit so dangerous: it unfits a person for telling the truth.
Frankfurt's account of bullshit is doubly remarkable. Not only does he define it in a novel way that distinguishes it from lying; he also uses this definition to establish a powerful claim: “Bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than lies are.” If this is true, we ought to be tougher on someone caught bullshitting than we are on someone caught lying.
“Deeper Into Bullshit,” G. A. Cohen, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford,
If the bullshit of ordinary life arises from indifference to truth, Cohen says, the bullshit of the academy arises from indifference to meaning
Frankfurt
“conduct of civilized life, and the vitality of the institutions that are indispensable to it, depend very fundamentally on respect for the distinction between the true and the false.”
Simon Blackburn observes in “Truth: A Guide” (Oxford; $25),
Posted by nicole at November 19, 2005 10:36 AM
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