On Bullshit

De: Harry G. Frankfurt

Narrado por: George Wilson

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bulls**t. 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 bulls**t and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bulls**t 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 bulls**t and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bulls**tters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bulls**t need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bulls**tters 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 bulls**t 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, bulls**t is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

©2005 Harry G. Frankfurt (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Frankfurt's deadpan tone gives a comic flavor to many of his observations." (San Francisco Chronicle)

too quotable to quote

Precise, devastating, and hilarious. Bullshit is speech made with an indifference to the truth, whose purpose is neither to affirm something as true, nor to deny truth, as such, but rather to convey a certain impression about the speaker. Because the bullshitter is indifferent to the truth, he is actually a greater enemy of it than is the liar, who must at least care enough about the exact state of affairs to distort it. The prevalance of bullshit in the contemporary world seems to owe to a combination of the frequent need, in public life, to speak as if informed on a matter about which one is ignorant, and to certain forms of skepticism whose denial of objectivte truth (or its knowability) results in a confused belief that the only truth is truth about oneself, or "sincerity". This assumes that the self is more accessible and knowable than the external world, but, as Frankfurt notes, we can only know in relation to externals. "And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself, is Bullshit....The End."

Circular start; strong finish.

“ As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them… Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial — notoriously less stable and less inherent than the natures of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit.”

This essay shares a great conceptual tool.

The philosophy of bullshit

This is an extremely academic book. Frankfurt, a Harvard professor, is looking to define very specifically what is meant by the term "bullshit." It is only an hour long, but it is very dense with explanation. It's a very challenging listen. I had to listen to it several times to really appreciate it. The humor is extremely dry and comes from the treatment of the subject, which is very philosophical. If you like Plato and Aristotle, you'll love On Bullshit. If you're looking for ranting and wise-cracking, this is not the book for you.

A Philosophic Guide to understanding Trump’s Existential Nothingness

Frankfurt makes a satisfying case that Bullshit does not need to notice what really happened. A well hewn lie has to respect reality to be effective, but bullshit has no boundaries. As it’s name reminds us it is excrement that only wants a dump

There is a difference between lies and bullshit

I’ll admit up front that the title hooked me as I’m sure it is intended to do. I’m not willing to admit what that says about me personally. :)

Aside from the inherent difficulty of listening to and fully comprehending philosophy in general (not my strongest ability), I enjoyed On Bullshit, and I am persuaded that there is a difference between lies and bullshit. This isn’t something I ever considered.

My enjoyment comes from the aspects of the book that also frustrate me: the wordplay, endless definitions, and qualifications that are common in the philosophy I have read.

The voice performance is great; the narrator’s tone is well suited to the material.

I’d only recommend this title to those who enjoy a little absurdity along with philosophy.

Accessing Academic Literature

It's important that the public be able to access academic literature. Monotonous readers don't help.

So You Think You Know About B.S.

This brief meander through definitions, examples, comparisons and other ways to see b.s. and those who use it was well worth the time. The distinction between lying and b.s.ing was something I had given little thought to, before.

Good but academically dense for 1 hour.

Good and interesting book. Its very much an academic look on BS which makes this a beefy book, even for just a 1 hour runtime.

An Excellent Acadmemic Analysis

Amongst the poor reviews for this book, I'm just going to say that those people probably expected something less than what this book actually is and probably aren't disciplined enough in academics to be able to appreciate this title.

That said, what you should expect is effectively an hour long and very detailed lecture on what "bullshit" is, how it works, how it perpetuates, why it's different than lying, and what some of the tenants of the practitioners of "bullshit" ("bullshiters") are.

This wasn't meant to be funny or humorous literature even though the title may make some people think otherwise. That isn't to say that there isn't a degree of comedy which stems from is the ironic fact that this a very serious work on a generally non-serious subject. It's as if Stephen Hawking wrote a book on the science of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with all of the seriousness of his other works.

If you're interested in the psychology related to bullshit, this is a great title; just be prepared to take notes if you actually want to retain the data, it is thick and verbose :)

Not all that bad

OK,there is a saying that if you cannot teach a subject clearly then you do not understand it. I suspect that Dr. Frankfurt understands what he's talking about. What is clear however, is that he is not at all clear in his writing. This book is unnecessarily burdened with thick language which makes it extremely difficult to read. The idea proposed by the book is actually very interesting and his discussion of it is also very interesting. The only "pop culture" aspect regarding this book is the title. Had the title been as stuffy as the reading, nobody would read it. So give the sample listen a shot before you buy. Of course, this might all be BS.