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Popular Culture and Philosophy #24
Bullshit and Philosophy
Popular interest in bullshit — and its near relative, truthiness — is at an all-time high, but the subject has a rich philosophical history, with Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Kant all weighing in on the matter. Here, contemporary philosophers reflect on bullshit from epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, historical, and political points of view. Tackling questions including what is bullshit, what does it do, is it a passing fad, and can it ever be eliminated, the book is a guide and resource for the many who find bullshit worth pondering.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 18, 2009
No good. Just read Harry Frankfurt's, On Bullshit. This thing goes on forever without much to say.
March 6, 2016
"Bullshit and Philosophy" is not pleasure reading and really only rewards the reader who is willing to delve into the sometimes opaque rhythms of academic jargon and methodology. The collected essays herein are, to be sure, academia, and not some kind of clever pastiche.
Which isn't to say there isn't some cleverness to be found. While there are a handful of the articles that are so densely and seriously written that it becomes a chore to tease out their conclusions, most of the philosophers charge their logic and observations with just enough of their tongues tucked into their cheeks that you almost feel like you're stealing a glimpse at some exclusive club of smart people sitting around unfurling their intelligence just for the sheer pleasure of it. The way you and your friends in college would suddenly find yourselves embroiled in an empassioned and escalating debate about something so extraordinarily trivial, not because you found it important but because you enjoyed the challenge and gratification of arguing with each other.
Channel that feeling through the lens of academic literature, and you end up with his collection.
And if you're up to that challenge, there are some interesting points-of-view to be found here concerning the ubiquity of bullshit in American society. While most of the writings here are dedicated to defining the term and haggling about the motivations and causes of such, there seems to be common agreement that there is too much of it flung around in our culture, and that educating ourselves about what bullshit actually is would go a long way toward limiting its more detrimental effects. When Harry Frankfurt wrote the tract that inspired this collection, "On Bullshit", he left it open for minds other than his to carry on the debate about where to go with his initial observations. Its nice to see that his colleagues took up the gauntlet bickered with each other and kept the debate rolling.
Also, it was funny to see so many philosophers portray Ludwig Wittgenstein as such a tool. At least there is a concensus on something.
Which isn't to say there isn't some cleverness to be found. While there are a handful of the articles that are so densely and seriously written that it becomes a chore to tease out their conclusions, most of the philosophers charge their logic and observations with just enough of their tongues tucked into their cheeks that you almost feel like you're stealing a glimpse at some exclusive club of smart people sitting around unfurling their intelligence just for the sheer pleasure of it. The way you and your friends in college would suddenly find yourselves embroiled in an empassioned and escalating debate about something so extraordinarily trivial, not because you found it important but because you enjoyed the challenge and gratification of arguing with each other.
Channel that feeling through the lens of academic literature, and you end up with his collection.
And if you're up to that challenge, there are some interesting points-of-view to be found here concerning the ubiquity of bullshit in American society. While most of the writings here are dedicated to defining the term and haggling about the motivations and causes of such, there seems to be common agreement that there is too much of it flung around in our culture, and that educating ourselves about what bullshit actually is would go a long way toward limiting its more detrimental effects. When Harry Frankfurt wrote the tract that inspired this collection, "On Bullshit", he left it open for minds other than his to carry on the debate about where to go with his initial observations. Its nice to see that his colleagues took up the gauntlet bickered with each other and kept the debate rolling.
Also, it was funny to see so many philosophers portray Ludwig Wittgenstein as such a tool. At least there is a concensus on something.
May 31, 2015
A collection of scholarly essays on Bullshit. I now have a greater understanding of bullshit and how I best respond to it. Useful as I strive towards a more authentic life and try to lessen the amount of bullshit I produce. I suspect some production of bullshit in life is unavoidable (it might be the lubricant of many aspects of society), but the quantity we might control. The time spent reading this was worthwhile.
February 21, 2020
A medium dive for those with some background in philosophy. I found it fascinating, enlightening, and depressing. Considering it reflected the political bullshit of the GW Bush years, I wish for an update. Bullshit in politics has now overwhelmed everything else and the ultimate bullshit President continues to use this tactic as a very powerful weapon against a gullible and ill-equipped society. We’re in deep trouble if we keep accepting this crap. This should be required reading for students in all science majors.
August 3, 2011
Fine, as far as these contributors can take it. The problem is, they have become desensitized to the stank of their own taurus-skata. But at the same time they do have enough of the skata removed from their own eyes that they can see it in some of the philosophical and cultural movements of our time. Really, this was supposed to be a popular re-presentation of Frankfurt's now classic book On Bullshit. But even here, it was kinda disappointing.
March 23, 2007
I'm reading this solely out of a desire to cover the "literature" in this area. Most of it is bilge. (Though the Aberdein and Maes and Schaubroeck pieces are exceptions, and it reprints the excellent Cohen paper.)
August 6, 2014
Fascinating and insightful. Learned a lot about communication and how we interact, and fail to interact with one another. And how our intentions and interpretations can be complicated and untrustworthy
Currently Reading
January 10, 2008Still reading.
January 13, 2008
Gets a little redundant at times. This book seems almost as if slapped together for popular culture reasons. Philosophy makes a buck.
November 11, 2022
Like all essay collections, a bit of a grab bag. The more successful contributions tend to be spirited or in the spirit of planting tongues firmly in cheek. The least successful contributions are po-faced, or worst, defenders of sacred cows that got gored by Frankfurt's little work on Bullshit. More fun are essays in the spirit of editor Hardcastle, which has fun while thinking through some of the parameters associated with Frankfurt's text. Probably the most essential piece here is by G. A. Cohen (it's name-checked in at least half a dozen other articles in the volume). Even among the better pieces, there sometimes seems to be a fear of calling certain kinds of discourse bullshit, even if they fit Frankfurt's criteria. In particular, several authors seem to want to save things like basic politeness or everyday expressions from being consigned to the bullshit bin. This impulse has always seemed a little pointless to me. If we're honest, isn't it really the case that most expressions of basic courtesy are forms of agreed-upon bullshit, expressions designed to convey neither truth nor falsity but to create a favorable impression in the auditor (or viewer)? In other words, stock phrases that may once have had meaning but by now are empty of content and thus little more than hot air (another of Frankfurt's criteria)? Some of the authors seem leery of this conclusion, but this fear seems odd to me. Most of the time when we say, for example, 'God bless you' after another sneezes, we are NOT saying, 'May the lord Jehovah / Brahma / Buddha / Allah / Great Pumpkin shower upon you his / her / their munificence and blessings'. What we are saying is 'hey, I'm not an insensitive asshole—you sneezed and common courtesy at a minimum obliges me to acknowledge that fact and so here I am doing that—don't hate me'. I don't see how it's a problem to state that such statements actually fulfill Frankfurt's criteria for bullshit to a T, though many of the contributors here expend a lot of hot air about same.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews