Library:On Bullshit
| On Bullshit | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harry G. Frankfurt |
| First published | 2005 |
| ISBN | 978-0-691-12294-6 |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Culture, Religion & Society |
| Tactics | |
On Bullshit is a 2005 book by Harry G. Frankfurt.
Summary
The founding text of the field. Harry G. Frankfurt, a moral philosopher at Princeton, first published the essay in 1986 in the Raritan Quarterly Review and reprinted it in his 1988 collection The Importance of What We Care About. Princeton University Press issued it as a slim standalone book in 2005, and it became an improbable bestseller, spending months on the New York Times list and making "bullshit" a respectable subject of academic study.
The liar and the bullshitter
Frankfurt's central move is to separate bullshit from lying. The liar cares about the truth, if only in order to conceal it: to lie well, he must know what is true and steer his listener away from it. The bullshitter is indifferent to the truth altogether. His statements may be true or false; he does not much care which, because their purpose is not to describe reality but to create an impression, usually of himself. What he conceals is not a fact but his own lack of concern for facts.
Why bullshit is the greater enemy
From this distinction comes the essay's most quoted conclusion: bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. The liar still plays the game of truth and falsehood and acknowledges its rules. The bullshitter ignores the game, and a culture saturated with bullshit gradually loses the habit of asking whether claims are true at all.
When bullshit flourishes
Frankfurt argues that bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk about something without knowing what they are talking about. Public life, he notes, routinely demands that people hold and express opinions on everything, which makes the production of bullshit nearly inevitable. He builds on Max Black's earlier essay on "humbug" and on an anecdote about Ludwig Wittgenstein rebuking a friend for describing her feelings carelessly, treating it as an example of how seriously one can take the obligation to speak accurately.
The sincerity problem
The essay ends with a provocative turn. Some argue that since objective truth is hard to know, people should at least be sincere and true to themselves. Frankfurt answers that this is itself a form of bullshit: our inner natures are no easier to know than the outside world, so retreating into sincerity abandons the discipline of getting things right.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The site's name and premise descend directly from this book. Frankfurt explains why so much of what Bullshitopedia documents is not strictly a lie: much of it is talk produced without regard to whether it is true. He followed it with a companion volume, On Truth (2006), on why truth matters in the first place.