On Bullshit

By: Harry G. Frankfurt

Narrated by: 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

Critic reviews

"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.

Required Reading for the Trump Era

Short, sweet & to the point, Frankfurt's prescient 2005 essay exposes the soul of US public discourse for what so much of it currently is--pure bullshit. I only wish the work was longer.

Fantastic, but lacking real-world examples

This is an extremely interesting and entertaining read. Frankfurt inserts just the right amount of dry humor: enough to keep his readers entertained but not so much as to trivialize his subject. Make no mistake, this is not a light read aimed at just anyone who thinks a book about bullshit might be funny; rather, Frankfurt's is a serious attempt to unpack its structure and function. His treatment of the subject is at once concise and complex -- so concise and complex in fact that the only thing that would make his essay stronger is more real-world examples to highlight his observations. The essay at times gets bogged down in linguistic and philosophical musings that are certainly profound and accurate but which are difficult to unpack without anecdotal examples. The essay is at its best when Frankfurt provides such examples, but such examples are too sparse to warrant a 5-star review from this reader. That said, the essay is well worth the time and psychic effort necessary to get the most out of it.