On Bullshit (1986) [pdf]

I’m not sure this works. What do we mean when we say “bullshit” — the necessary and sufficient conditions. I’d expect ex ante that it’s not reasonable to expect any consistent description to be applicable over speaker or over time.

Seems more useful to just say “intentional misrepresentation” when that’s what you mean, but what do we mean when we say “misrepresentation” … and so the line of —- what Id call bullshit — philosophical “enquiry” begins.

kurthr2• 4 years ago

It's "not even wrong". It's gibberish and/or internally inconsistent and/or fundamentally unprovable. It's a waste of time to read or comment on, much less correct.

nonrandomstring• 4 years ago

It's more subtle than "gibberish and/or internally inconsistent" as opposed to "intentional misrepresentation".

Frankfurt sets this important subtlety out quite early IIRC, as being about the reflective capacity of the bullshitter.

The liar has clear reflection and intent, and may be highly intelligent and able to construct clever arguments. A troll only wants to hurt and uses disingenuous talk instrumentally. The idiot may offer up enthusiastic but confused jibber-jabber whose truth content is patchy/questionable but lacks deceptive intent. We can all be liars, mean or idiots from time to time as we are sly, insecure or careless through language. Even when acting in good faith most of us are in the epistemological bind of spreading misinformation that seems true and justified, but we're unable to verify.

The bullshitter; does . not . give . a . fuck .

It's a sociopathic disregard for feelings, consequences, truth or falsehood. The bullshitter is immersed in their own fantasy of confidence and will do or say anything that keeps it's momentum going. When challenged with real contrary evidence the bullshitter doubles down. You can see it in trained bullshitters, politicians, company PR spokespeople, and drunks who are too far gone to keep themselves in check.

Most of it is benign. You can still learn a lot from or about a bullshitter by filling in the gaps around what the fantasy means to them. Professional bullshit is a whole different problem and is deeply corrosive so society - and there's mountains of it because the system must, at all costs save face.

User232• 4 years ago

That’s literally the point of this little book. Bullshit as Frankfurt defined it is assuredly not “intentional misrepresentation,” because that is a species of lying which is distinctly different from bullshit. In short the liar is concerned with the truth. He at least thinks he knows it and is twisting or hiding it. Contrariwise, the bullshitter is completely unconcerned with the truth. He is solely concerned with the effects of his speech itself.

People should read this book, because learning to recognize bullshit is something everyone thinks they’re good at, but most persons are quite bad at it.

As an example, we have the catch phrase of 2021, “safe and effective.” The various talking heads didn’t at all care or even have a clue about the phrase’s truth value. How could they? The clinical trials weren’t even finished! Those bullshitters were solely concerned with persuading people to get vaccinated. Whether you agree with that aim or not is irrelevant to the observable reality that it was, in fact, bullshit.

MikaEfrat2• 4 years ago

Pairs nicely with Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.

I see bullshit in the same way that culture develops its tradition; layers upon layers of truths and falsities strung together in ways we often take for granted and in most cases harmless. E.G. while one can understand a words meaning nonverbally, the written definition of that word is really a bullshit passage of different words strung together.

And while it's life's greatest gift, perhaps love is the greatest bullshit of all. The charades of romance is utterly beautiful, yet filled with so much pretence along the way.

otabdeveloper4• 4 years ago

I'm pretty sure "love" and "romance" are orthogonal.

MikaEfrat2• 4 years ago

You caught me in my bullshit!

devin• 4 years ago

Harry Frankfurt wrote more than just On Bullshit. On Love is also good, for example. If you like this you’ll likely enjoy his other work. Their titles aren’t as flashy, though.

yung_steezy• 4 years ago

Now THIS is what I call a Frankfurt school of thought

fideloper2• 4 years ago

Oh fun! I bought a copy of this book years ago, it was cathartic after "serving" under a boss who was particularly conflicted with the gift of being a bullshitter.

I eventually used the book as a shim - a sort of layer of protection for my desk from the clamp of a microphone boom that I had to clamp down on the desk very tightly. It would threaten to fall off constantly, and On Bullshit was the perfect protection - small and thin but, most importantly, also hard-covered. It acted as a shim between the clamp and the desk I was protecting.

Eventually I got a better mic arm (low profile one from Elagato). Since then the book was somewhere around my messy office at all times, lost in the shuffle.

My 5 year old son just found it the other week and asked me to read it to him. Luckily he can't yet read, so the big glaring letters ON BULLSHIT on the cover weren't interpreted.

I was failing to come up with good excuse as to why I couldn't read this to him, even starting to sweat a little. He's a persistent one, so I had to word my response carefully, else risk a drawn out argument. Yes, an argument with a 5 year old.

Finally I blurted out "it doesn't have any pictures!" and that...worked?! "Oh, it's an adult book?" ... "uhhh yes that's it, an adult book!"

Crisis averted with a little bullshit.

eimrine• 4 years ago

You are such a shitty parent! Is it really such a blessing that your child didn't learn to read, having twice as long as it takes some other children to master this skill?

fideloper2• 4 years ago

Indeed, my 5 year old tells me I'm the worst quite often. Confirmed!

supernihil• 4 years ago

Its great. I have it on paper, got it as a present. Also check "on truth" by same author

perfecthjrjth• 4 years ago

Late G.A Cohen's piece is good: http://www.ditext.com/cohen/Cohen.pdf

On Bullshit (1986) [pdf]

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