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Anniversary Edition by Harry FrankfurtPrinceton University Press
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On Bullshit Hardcover – January 30, 2005


#1 New York Times bestseller
Featured on The Daily Show and 60 Minutes
The acclaimed book that illuminates our world and its politics by revealing why bullshit is more dangerous than lying

One of the most prominent features of our world is that there is so much bullshit. Yet we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, how it’s distinct from lying, what functions it serves, and what it means. In his acclaimed bestseller
On Bullshit, Harry Frankfurt, who was one of the world’s most influential moral philosophers, explores this important subject, which has become a central problem of politics and our world.

With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. 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. Although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the bullshitter’s capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that the truth matters. Because of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Remarkably prescient and insightful,
On Bullshit is a small book that explains a great deal about our time.

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From the Publisher

On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt is the #1 New York Times bestseller
Media reviews from The Guardian and Sunday Times about On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt
On Bullshit The anniversary edition Harry Frankfurt princeton

On bullshit

ON Bullshit By Harry Frankfurt Philosophy

On bullshit postscript

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit," Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted." This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge--what it is, what it does, and why there's so much of it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can't be denied; part of the book's charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word "bullshit." More pertinent is Frankfurt's focus on intentions--the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

This may sound all too familiar to those of use who still live in the "reality-based community" and must deal with a world convulsed by those who do not. But Frankfurt leaves such political implications to his readers. Instead, he points to one source of bullshit's unprecedented expansion in recent years, the postmodern skepticism of objective truth in favor of sincerity, or as he defines it, staying true to subjective experience. But what makes us think that anything in our nature is more stable or inherent than what lies outside it? Thus, Frankfurt concludes, with an observation as tiny and perfect as the rest of this exquisite book, "sincerity itself is bullshit." --Mary Park

Review

"A #1 New York Times Bestseller"

"Harry G. Frankfurt, Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecturer, American Council of Learned Societies"

"Winner of the Bestseller Award in Philosophy, The Book Standard"

"Brilliant."
---Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post

"Seminal."
---Roger Cohen, New York Times

"Immediately, I must say: read it. Beautifully written, lucid, ironic and profound, it is a model of what philosophy can and should do. It is a small and highly provocative masterpiece, and I really don't think I am bullshitting you here."
---Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

"Frankfurt’s account of bullshit is doubly remarkable. Not only does he define it in a novel way that distinguishes it from lying; he also uses this definition to establish a powerful claim: ‘Bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than lies are.’"
---Jim Holt, The New Yorker

"
On Bullshit taxonomises an entire style of government."---Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian

"[
On Bullshit] remains unnervingly relevant. . . . Frankfurt described the bullshitter as ‘he’ rather than ‘she’ or ‘they.' But now . . . we may have to refer to the bullshitter as ‘it’—because a new generation of chatbots are poised to generate bullshit on an undreamt-of scale."---Tim Harford, Financial Times

"A tightly focused, telling critique of a political and cultural climate that seems positively humid with mendacity, obfuscation, evasion and illusion."
---Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

"Frankfurt famously argued that bullshit is speech that is typically persuasive but is detached from a concern with the truth. Large language models are the ultimate bullshitters because they are designed to be plausible (and therefore convincing) with no regard for the truth. . . . And bullshit is dangerous, warned Frankfurt."
---Carissa Véliz, Time

"The droll prose is a tasty treat."
---Richard Pachter, Boston Globe

"[Frankfurt] tries, with the help of Wittgenstein, Pound, St. Augustine and the spy novelist Eric Ambler, among others, to ask some of the preliminary questions—to define the nature of a thing recognized by all but understood by none. . . . What is bullshit, after all? Mr. Frankfurt points out it is neither fish nor fowl. Those who produce it certainly aren't honest, but neither are they liars, given that the liar and the honest man are linked in their common, if not identical, regard for the truth."
---Peter Edidin, New York Times

"A slim treatise on the pervasive, willful and devilish art of avoiding the truth." ―
Washington Post

"[Frankfurt] attracted public attention on a scale unimaginable to most academic philosophers. The reason for his appearances on Jon Stewart’s
Daily Show, CBS’s 60 Minutes and other US network TV programmes was On Bullshit, his brief but bestselling disquisition on what he described as ‘one of the most salient features of our culture.'" ― Financial Times

"The scholar who answers the question, 'What is bullshit?' bids boldly to define the spirit of the present age. . . . Frankfurt's definition is one of those not-at-all-obvious insights that become blindingly obvious the moment they are expressed."
---Timothy Noah, Slate

"Harry Frankfurt is gone. But before he left, he won half the battle against bullshit: He called it what it is."
---Stephen Harrop, Boston Globe

"Terrific. . . . Has anything truer ever been written?"
---William Watson, Montreal Gazette

"This is what the world has long needed. . . . Bullshit is now such a dominant feature of our culture that most of us are confident we can recognize and rebuff it. But Frankfurt shows the reader just how insidious (and destructive) it can be. . . . This book will change your life."
---Leopold Froehlich, Playboy

"Frankfurt is that rare thing, a secular thinker trained in analytical philosophy who has focused a lifetime’s attention on moral issues, has insights of real value, and is able to express them in rational language to any intelligent and attentive reader. . . . He is what an intellectual should be: someone who cares deeply about truth, and follows where it leads, instead of trying to lead it."
---David Warren, Ottawa Citizen

"While philosophers have considered [
On Bullshit] seriously, political scientists generally have not. But they should, because BS is an integral part of political rhetoric."---Paul Babbitt, Chronicle of Higher Education

"One of the most read works of public philosophy ever."
---Nigel Warburton, New European

"Frankfurt's book should be required reading for anyone whose speech or writing are intended for public consumption. Despite his subject, he is definitely not full of it."
---Kevin Wood, Japan Times

"
On Bullshit grabbed the imagination of so many because it identified something that was obvious as soon as Frankfurt pointed it out. . . . Writing near the beginning of the digital age, Frankfurt never anticipated that the rivers of bullshit would soon become tsunamis, supercharged by the internet, social media and a 24/7 media cycle."---Brett Evans, Inside Story (Australia)

"Thanks to Harry G. Frankfurt, we now have the theoretical framework and tools for recognising and evaluating bullshit.
On Bullshit is essential reading for the sceptically inclined."---Gerry Burke, Dublin Opinion

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 30, 2005
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 67 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691122946
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691122946
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.5 x 6.25 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #99,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

About the author

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Harry G. Frankfurt
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Harry G. Frankfurt is a professor of philosophy emeritus at Princeton University. His books include The Reasons of Love; Necessity, Volition, and Love; and The Importance of What We Care About. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.