On Bullshit

By Harry G. Frankfurt

Book Overview

#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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691122946
• ISBN13: 9780691122946
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.1" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Does no one get the joke?

After reading the reviews in this forum it is clear that virtually no one gets the point of "On Bulls!#t." Harry Frankfurt's "On Bulls!#t," which is a popular essay that has been reprinted as this little book, is one, big, brilliant, joke. And that's why it's so darn good. Unfortunately, it seems that most all reviewers, even those who have sung the book's praises, simply don't get the joke. This book is multilayered. It...

Insights Most Needed by the People Who Won't Read This Book

Harry G. Frankfurt, the author of this slight but thought provoking book, is a Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University and a renowned moral philosopher. This is a serious discussion regarding the fact that bull---- occupies such a central role in much of the discourse which occurs in practically all facets of our culture, yet to the author's apparent chagrin this phenomenom "has not aroused much deliberate...

no bushit

An arrow to the heart, and neither pedantic nor self-righteous. It goes from dry hilarity to concise philosophy in the wink of an eye. Wonderfully free of scholasticism and self-indulgence, and you can read and comprehend it (initially) in an hour. The self discipline and rewriting keeps it from being a clumsy 300 page waddle through redundant erudition. Best read in maybe 25 years.

Short and Sweet

I got this book after seeing Prof. Frankfurt on the Daily Show with John Stewart. Having a bachelors degree in philosophy I was intrigued. Here are some of my observations: 1) This book is not traditionally funny. If you are looking for a joke book get one, this is a work of philosophy and as such has a degree of intellectual humor. Some of the observations and comments are funny but overall this is not a joke book, rather...