The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays

by Max Black

Book by Black, Max

Genres: Philosophy

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Micah Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found a copy of this after I started reading Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" and he alluded to the title essay here, and I thought, "ope, better read that first." It looked like a promising collection of essays on accessible topics by a rigorous philosopher, so I thought it might be a good read overall. Unfortunately I just found it a slog through goopy academese in service of disappointingly trite and shallow conclusions. Although not a card-carrying member of the J.L. Austin School of Ordinary Language Spelunking, Black does like to keep common or garden variety uses of expressions always in view. I have no objection to that, but in one or two places he actually chooses as a launching-off point the valedictorian cliché "Webster's Dictionary defines X as...". Come ON. Onward and upward, back to Frankfurt...