Title On Bullshit
Author Harry G. Frankfurt
Year Published 1986 original essay 2005 book
Kind of Book philosophy/linguistics/essay
How strongly I recommend it 7/10
My Impressions Nothing extraordinary here, but I found this little essay is useful for clearing up the subtle distinctions between "lying" and "bull shitting" which helped sharpen my thinking on the matter.
Date Read Feb 2021, June 2022
What question is the author trying to answer?
My aim is simply to give a rough account of what bullshit is and how it differs from what it is not.. Pg.2
Practical Takeaways
Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through-Eric Ambler (Dirty Story)
Big Ideas
Unknown Terms
Bull: trivial, insincere, or untruthful talk or writing 2)nonscene 3)Bravado or hot air
Bull Shitting: the person's intention is not to report the truth, conceal the truth, or deceive others of the truth (as in a lie), but rather he has no interest in what is true and often doesn't even know what is true2) it may sometime (but not necessarily) have pretentiousness as its motive 3)talking out of your ass 4)closer to bluffing than telling a lie 5)the essence is not that it is false, but phony
Humbug: 1)a British slang for "baloney" 2)intended to deceive 3) it is also an speech act that one can make ie. I call ___on you
Salient: 1) prominent 2) noticeable 3) jumping 4)protruding beyond a line or surface
2 Definitions of lying
When a person makes a statement he believes to be false in order to deceive (only if the statement turns out to indeed be false)
When a person makes a statement he believes to be false in order to deceive (even if the statement turns out to be true)
Germane: Related to a matter at hand, especially to a subject under discussion.
Whole cloth: Pure fabrication or fiction. 2)Out of nothing; from the very start. 3) A reference to tailors who would falsely advertise garments being made "out of whole cloth," when, in reality, they were pieced together from different cuts.
Chide: 1)To scold mildly so as to correct or improve; reprimand. 2)To express disapproval.
Bull Session: sim to spit balling 1)"participants try out various thoughts and attitudes in order to see how it feels to hear themselves saying such things and in order to discover how others respond, without its being assumed that they are committed to what they say: it is understood by everyone in a bull session that the statements people make do not necessarily reveal what they really believe or how they really feel."pg.36