Has anyone read this book? I hear it's the greatest book ever written.

On Bullshit

FROM THE PUBLISHER
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. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."
Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth thanlies are.

but I do not believe there really is such a book.

I got this from Barnes and Noble Website. No shit!

Like I am going to trust a huge corporation.
If you order it you probably get a blank book which says on the 200th page - "gotcha!"

joke to get revenge on a certain kind of customer. Just to make them go into every book store in the country and say, "I'd like a book. On Bullshitting." You could just see the looks on the faces of the clerks getting that request.

Frankfurt had an article in Harper's a few years ago: "On Bullsihit." It seems to have become his specialty.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691122946/qid=1108759390/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-4788172-1135956

looks like an interesting book for discussion. one reviewer says you could probably find the entire thing (80 pages) online somewhere. i'm still looking.

It must be on every philosophy major's mind at one point or another. "Is this bullshit I'm reading?" I frequently wondered that as an English major.

...don't know if it's the complete essay.... have not read it yet.

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

;) Thank you!

in the NYT this week. Sounded like the guy (a philosophy professor) actually had some good points to make.

It's an interesting, and actually important subject in the Irony Age.

in a softball game. I was playing shortstop and lobbed to it him at 2nd base. He was playing without a glove and took it on the tip on his finger. Just thought I'd throw that in. :)

;)

I had not thought of that obvious response. But it's true.

:insert skeptical-looking smiley tapping foot and with arms akimbo:

What film?

:shrug: off the top of my head.

History of the World Part I.

Mel Brooks is a Stand Up Philosopher in the Roman Empire. He's collecting unemployment and when he goes to get his check the clerk asks him what he does and he tells her "Stand up Philosopher!" and she says "Oh, you mean a bullshitter!"

I'm not shitting ya. I did see one funny clip from it though: one guy passing another on the street in ancient Athens, and the one guy says, "Hey! Oedipus, you motherfucker! How you doin'?"

Are you sure it was from HOTWPI??? I don't remember that and I don't think they had a part w/ Athens in it (though it's been a while since I've seen it), but that IS friggin' funny!

You should rent it, it's a classic!

If I want to make myself crack up, I can just think of Dom DeLouise as the crazy priest in the Twelve Chairs.