This paper addresses the following three claims that Frankfurt makes about the concept of bullshit:
1. Bullshit requires the intention to deceive others.
2. Bullshit does not constitute lying (bullshit is “short of lying”).
3. The essence of bullshit is lack of concern with the truth of what one says.
I offer counterexamples to all three claims. By way of defending my counterexamples, I examine Cohen’s distinction between bullshiting and bullshit and argue that my examples are indeed cases of bullshiting that Frankfurt’s analysis is intended to cover. My examples of bullshitters who are very concerned to say only things that are true show that Frankfurt is mistaken in claiming that the “essence” of bullshit is lack of concern with the truth of what one says.
1983The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Carson, T
2009 “Lying and deception and related concepts”. In Clancy Martin (ed), The Philosophy of Deception. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 153–187.
Carson, T
2010Lying and Deception. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, G.A
2002 “Deeper into bullshit”. In S. Buss and L. Overton (eds), Contours of Agency: Essays on Themes from Harry Frankfurt. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 321–339.
Cohen, G.A
2006 “Deeper into bullshit”. In G. Hardcastle and G. Reisch, (eds), Bullshit and Philosophy. Chicago: Open Court.
2011 “Review of Carson, Lying and Deception”. Mind 120(4): 1232–1237.
Fallis, D. and Stokke, A
in preparation). “Bullshiting, Truth, and Inquiry”.
Frankfurt, H
2002 “Reply to G. A. Cohen”. In S. Buss and L. Overton (eds), Contours of Agency: Essays on Themes from Harry Frankfurt. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Frankfurt, 340–344.
Frankfurt, H
2005On Bullshit. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Saul, J
2012Lying, Misleading and What is Said. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sokal, A. and Bricmont, J
1998Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science. New York: Picador 1998.
Sorensen, R
2011“Fooling ourselves: Should we believe what philosophy tells us about lying.” Review of Clancy Martin, (ed), The Philosophy of Deception and Brooke Harrington, (ed), Deception, Times Literary Supplement, March4 2011.
Wikipedia
2016 “Maarten Boudry.”
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Cited by 13 other publications
Beville, Aoife
2021. “An Infinite and Endless Liar”: Paroles as a Case Study of the Pragmatics of Lying in Shakespeare. Linguæ & - Rivista di lingue e culture moderne 20:2
Briciu, Adrian
2021. Bullshit, trust, and evidence. Intercultural Pragmatics 18:5 ► pp. 633 ff.
Fox, Stephen
2018. Irresponsible Research and Innovation? Applying Findings from Neuroscience to Analysis of Unsustainable Hype Cycles. Sustainability 10:10 ► pp. 3472 ff.
Gibbons, Adam F.
2023. Bullshit in Politics Pays. Episteme► pp. 1 ff.
Gligorić, Vukašin & Ana Vilotijević
2020. “Who said it?” How contextual information influences perceived profundity of meaningful quotes and pseudo‐profound bullshit. Applied Cognitive Psychology 34:2 ► pp. 535 ff.
Jaster, Romy & David Lanius
2021. Wenn Wahrheit wertlos wird. In Politische Bildung für die digitale Öffentlichkeit, ► pp. 175 ff.
Littrell, Shane, Evan F. Risko & Jonathan A. Fugelsang
2021. ‘You can’t bullshit a bullshitter’ (or can you?): Bullshitting frequency predicts receptivity to various types of misleading information. British Journal of Social Psychology 60:4 ► pp. 1484 ff.
Littrell, Shane, Evan F. Risko & Jonathan A. Fugelsang
2021. The Bullshitting Frequency Scale: Development and psychometric properties. British Journal of Social Psychology 60:1 ► pp. 248 ff.
Meibauer, Gustav
2021. Ambiguous specificity: The production of foreign policy bullshit in electoral contexts. Politics 41:1 ► pp. 15 ff.
Pascale, Celine-Marie
2019. The weaponization of language: Discourses of rising right-wing authoritarianism. Current Sociology 67:6 ► pp. 898 ff.
Smith, Viktor, Daniel Barratt, Peter Møgelvang-Hansen & Alexander U. Wedel Andersen
2022. Concluding Remarks. In Misleading Marketing Communication, ► pp. 133 ff.
Spicer, André
2020. Playing the Bullshit Game: How Empty and Misleading Communication Takes Over Organizations. Organization Theory 1:2 ► pp. 263178772092970 ff.
Tarrit, Fabien
2023. Continuité et ruptures chez Cohen. À propos d’un livre de Nicholas Vrousalis. Revue de philosophie économique Vol. 23:2 ► pp. 3 ff.
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