On Bullshit

In this, the Darkest Timeline, you’re probably familiar with the essence of Frankfurt’s argument about bullshit. Truth-tellers and liars share a common foundation that the truth exists, and that it matters. Liars sincerely want something other than the truth to be believed, at least long enough for them to make use of the advantage. By contrast, bullshit has no concern with external reality. Instead bullshit is a kind of performative game, allowing the bullshitter to enhance his social status, without concern for the truth or falsity of his statements.

There’s a bit at the end that I think captures the essence of Frankfurt’s arguments, which move smoothly from Augustine to Wittgenstein. “Rather than seeking primarily to arrive at accurate representations of a common world, the individual turns towards trying to provide honest representations of himself. Convinced that reality has no inherent nature, which he might hope to identify as the truth about things, he devotes himself to being true to his own nature.” Sound like a certain very orange POTUS?

More narrowly, I think it’d be an interesting experiment to assign On Bullshit to a writing-intensive college course. So much of academic writing is bullshit, in the sense that it is about performing “I am a knowledgeable expert” rather than about making real claims. Professors are just much better at it than students. I’d be fascinated in a class that allowed a student to be wrong, but hit them with the banhammer if they used bullshit. Any takers?