A Philosophical Analysis of Bullshit

Reviewing By Harry Frankfurt’s Book “On Bullshit”

I was already familiar with Frankfurt’s concept, but I wanted to read the original work, and I’m glad I did. First of all, it is quite a funny book. When the book arrived, and my girlfriend asked what it was, I said it was a philosophical take on bullshit. She looked confused and thought I was joking. But humour aside, I also think it is a great display of how philosophy can be done well. Not just grand metaphysical schemes but clarify rather “banal” conceptions we have and articulate and explore them.

The book is incredibly short, which I value a lot. Some books have great insights but require a huge time investment. When you have to put little time but get a decent amount of it, that’s a gold nugget. The specific hardcover version I bought, which was quite high-quality and robust, was only 67 pages. But the pages are small, and the font is huge. You can read the whole thing in an hour or less. I highly recommend it.

Bullshit is introduced as a concept distinct from lying. He starts by trying to track its etymology but then tells a story in which Wittgenstein gets annoyed at someone who says they feel like a dog who was run over. The annoyance is because the person doesn’t actually know how a dog feels after being run over by a car. This whole situation might feel quite stupid and bizarre, and it’s possible the story may have been out of context, but it nicely illustrates Frankfurt’s point.

Wittgenstein, being obsessed with language’s objectivity, took issue with this rather simple expression. The key question is, was she lying that she felt like a dog who was run over? Not exactly. Lying implies that I know the truth and I’m trying to deceive you. A lie requires me to care about truth values. Bullshit, however, is when I don’t care about the truth. For example, it doesn’t really matter that much how exactly a dog feels after being run over. I’m not lying about the differences in feeling; it’s just that whatever the differences are, they don’t matter.

A bullshitter is not misrepresenting the world nor even trying to affect your beliefs about his beliefs (which a liar does). What we are deceived, however, is that we expect people to care about the truth. Because both truth-tellers and liars need. But bullshit goes beyond the truth.

This is quite relevant for today’s culture, as we approach a state of “post-truth”. It’s not that there are people who lie or even get things wrong. But there are people who don’t even care about truth at all; it’s not even a factor. This is particularly evident in modern advertisements, which is what drew me to Frankfurt’s concept of bullshit the most. There are certainly statements that are not true in many ads. But they are not trying to lie. They just don’t care. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the salience of the ad. Not only do they not care about it, but you don’t care either. It is too obvious. Few bother to refute an ad because it is a post-truth realm. It is pure bullshit.

Thanks for reading. If you like non-fiction book reviews, feel free to follow me on Medium or subscribe to my Substack.

I also have a philosophy podcast. If you want to check it out look for Anagoge Podcast.

Tiago V.F.