On Bullshit

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Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 20, 2017 - 11:06am PT

Harry Frankfurt - 'On Bullshit'

[Click to View YouTube Video]

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullsh#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 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 than lies are.
Lorenzo

Trad climber
Portland Oregon
Jun 20, 2017 - 11:17am PT
“Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.”

John Alexander Smith
Oxford 1914
Urizen

Ice climber
Berkeley, CA
Jun 20, 2017 - 11:19am PT
I had a friend in high school who, when he proceeded reluctantly to university, loudly proclaimed most of what he heard in the required social sciences courses to be bullsh#t, until a professor challenged him to explain what he meant. So he wrote a high-grade term paper on the nature and practice of bullsh#t. As I recall, he established three general categories: expert bullsh#t, institutional bullsh#t, and recreational bullsh#t. The subsequent development of the internet climbing forum has certainly validated at least one aspect of his taxonomy.
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Jun 20, 2017 - 11:37am PT
If you are in a contest to see how far you can throw it, be sure to focus on the lighter colored ones that look as dry as possible. You can leverage the frisbee effect with such dry meadow muffins, but the dark heavy wet ones with insect pupal activity are certain losers.

Deadly serious here, based on my direct experience.
cleo

Social climber
wherever you go, there you are
Jun 20, 2017 - 11:43am PT
Great book!

https://www.amazon.com/Bullsh#t-Harry-G-Frankfurt/dp/0691122946
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Jun 20, 2017 - 12:08pm PT
What about The Mushroom Effect? You've never heard of ME? What BS!
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Nick Danger

Ice climber
Arvada, CO
Jun 20, 2017 - 01:35pm PT
The Journal of Irreproducible Results once had a priceless little piece of published research called "the preparation of pure sh!t". Remarkable article from quite the august journal.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Jun 20, 2017 - 02:18pm PT
I am constantly thankful for all I learned while at university, you never know when you could be called upon to exercise yer knowledge of nuclear ASROC depth charges! That's no bullshit!
perswig

climber
Jun 20, 2017 - 03:04pm PT
Dumb name for a reindeer.
"On Dasher, on Dancer..." sounds much better, don't it?

Carry on.
Dale
Mark Force

Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
Jun 21, 2017 - 07:11am PT
I know a con when I see one.
~ Michael Bloomberg
MikeL

Social climber
Southern Arizona
Jun 21, 2017 - 07:32am PT
MH2,

:-D

Nice.
DM88T

climber
Dave Tully SanDimas,California
Jun 21, 2017 - 12:34pm PT
"Controversy equalizes fools and wise men in the same way - and the fools know it."
 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
johntp

Trad climber
socal
Jun 21, 2017 - 01:29pm PT
The taco posting about BS. Am I the only one that finds this ironic?
Messages 1 - 13 of total 13 in this topic
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