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On Bullshit: Sobre la manipulación de la verdad

harry g. frankfurt miguel candel sanmartín

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Una de las características más sobresalientes de nuestra cultura es la gran abundancia de fantochadas. Todos lo sabemos y todos contribuimos a ello. Pero el fenómeno aún no ha despertado demasiadas preocupaciones. No tenemos ninguna comprensión clara de cuál es la sustancia de la que están hechas las fantochadas, de por qué abundan tanto o qué papel desempeñan. Y carecemos de una verdadera conciencia sobre lo que significan para nosotros. Es decir, como dice Harry «No tenemos ninguna teoría». Frankfurt, uno de los filósofos morales más influyentes del mundo, procura construir aquí esa teoría. Con su combinación característica de pasión filosófica, penetración psicológica y maliciosa ironía, explora los modos en que la fantochada puede distinguirse de la tergiversación deliberada. Y concluye que puede tomar muchas formas inocentes, pero en realidad es mucho más perniciosa para la verdad que las propias mentiras.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,2005

This edition

Format
80 pages, Hardcover
Published
April 1, 2006 by Ediciones Paidós
ISBN
9788449318832
ASIN
8449318831
Language
Spanish; Castilian

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About the author

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harry g. frankfurt

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Harry Gordon Frankfurt was an American philosopher. He was a professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught from 1990 until 2002. Frankfurt also taught at Yale University, Rockefeller University, and Ohio State University.
Frankfurt made significant contributions to fields like ethics and philosophy of mind. The attitude of caring played a central role in his philosophy. To care about something means to see it as important and reflects the person's character. According to Frankfurt, a person is someone who has second-order volitions or who cares about what desires he or she has. He contrasts persons with wantons. Wantons are beings that have desires but do not care about which of their desires is translated into action. In the field of ethics, Frankfurt gave various influential counterexamples, so-called Frankfurt cases, against the principle that moral responsibility depends on the ability to do otherwise. His most popular book is On Bullshit, which discusses the distinction between bullshitting and lying.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
33(33%)
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31(31%)
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36(36%)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Thomadeus
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I got about 25% through this book before I finally said, "Enough."

Two issues primarily influenced my decision:
1) I've graded enough essays to know when someone is utilizing a preponderance of unnecessary verbiage in an attempt to obfuscate an apparent dearth of meaning.
2) This quote: "Thus someone who lies about how much money he has in his pocket both gives an account of the amount of money in his pocket and conveys that he believes this account" (13). If I may be influenced by the title of the book, I must call bullshit. In order to lie, one must be aware of the truth. A lie is intentional. If I say that I have twenty dollars in my pocket while I only have ten dollars, I do not believe that I have twenty.

It is possible that this book does go on to contain useful information and intelligent observations, but I just didn't have the patience to get there. If someone tells me it's worth it to continue, I might push on.
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Yumever
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A very quick read. The book is a mere 67 pages and the pages are very small. It's a pocket book.

Well, I have to say it was a fun read but hardly worth buying. I would have rather bought another of the many books I have lined up and would like to own. Worth reading, but don't pay for it. You could read it in the bookstore in about 20-30 minutes. I read it while waiting for the bus tonight. I now know the difference between lying and bullshitting and really don't care all that much. I still look forward to reading more substantial works of Frankfurt's though. I like his style. I hear Reasons of Love and On Truth are rather good. Shoulda bought one of those instead.
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Hornless
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This slim, elegant little book looks at first like an elaborate joke, but I think it is actually quite serious. What is "bullshit"? asks the author, a distinguished moral philosopher. He examines and discards various plausible hypotheses, for example that bullshit is merely lying or careless use of language. As he points out, the bullshit artist often lies, but need not do so: some bullshit is, more or less by accident, perfectly true. And similarly, although much bullshit is hasty or careless, some of the worst bullshit around is crafted with exquisite care and attention to detail; one need only think of commercial advertising and political campaigns.

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)

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mariadaisy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A sincere three-star rating for not once mentioning an actual bull.
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LoveLetter100
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt is an in depth (maybe?) philosophical examination of bullshit. Its definition, use, and relation to the world and humanity are examined in detail. Frankfurt looks at the definitions and concepts of lying, humbug, bull session, and so on, to compare various forms of "hot air" to bullshit. He examines our need as humans to seem knowledgeable on various subjects, and therefore "bluff our way through" to try and seem knowledgeable to others. Why do we do this? Frankfurt tries to differentiate bullshit from lies, where lies are deliberate attempts to hide a fact, and bullshit is less concerned with truth or fiction. Bullshit can be seen as an attempt to explore subjects intellectually, by teasing out definitions, and "muddling through" the idea in question by exploring the known and unknown of the particular topic or concept. It can also be a way to try and deceive others into thinking one knows more about a subject than they actually do.

Frankfurt's short little book is illuminating and humorous. In an age where we need to sell ourselves at job interviews or on a date, or where we enjoy sitting down and "shooting the shit" with our friends both on and offline, where politicians flaunt facts and figures with no value, and where marketers and PR firms white wash their products for our consumption, Frankfurt's little treatise is interesting and highly relevant. It is also very humorous, and not necessarily meant to be taken seriously. It is, as much is, a load of hot air, and I personally enjoyed it immensely.
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TJQ15
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Even though we own this book I ignored it for many years because I thought it was a joke book. After reading Schur's book I realized this one was written by an actual philosopher. It's a short essay and I find it startling and accidentally persuasive that I should try to speak less bullshit in my own life. My brand usually results from a similar cause to this quote: "Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstance require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about." Except, in my case, replace "require someone" with "I desire." Sometimes I even previously had the relevant information in my brain but I have now forgotten. This is why writing can be so much better than talking- plenty of time to look up the facts.
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WAFFLEJUSTICE
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This is a book that presents a theory of bullshit that defines the concept and analyzes the applications of bullshit in the context of communication. The author argues that bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth, and that bullshitters are more dangerous than liars because they don't care about the truth at all.

Best of all, the book itself is a masterful example of bullshit. It is not a book that will teach you anything about bullshit, but rather show you how much bullshit there is in the world of philosophy. It deliberately violates the author's own standards of clarity, rigor, and honesty. He does not offer any practical advice or solutions on how to deal with bullshit, or how to avoid becoming a bullshitter oneself. In the process, he contradicts himself, he repeats himself, he bores himself, but it is still enjoyable.
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Umezono
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Even without knowing the author, I can identify the author is a highly educated person. But please don't be intimidated by author's career in academic. Just read this book alone we can have a glimpse of author's mind. The descriptions are so pristine and sharp reflects author's mind, for example you will learn to distinct between bullshit and lie. But then the average rating of this book when I read it is pretty low (3.50) and some reviewers cannot determine to like it or not, so I wonder why.

I want to propose a hypothesis: the readers (unconsciously) feel the book has a lot of nonsense. Yes, the book that discussing about bullshit is dragging the readers with a lot of hot-air tenses/paragraphs. This book has both qualities: an enlightening work with a lot of bullshits. Some people rate based on the nonsense content what do you expect for the majority of this book, full illuminating knowledge in each tense? , some people rate based on the knowledge gems in the book.

I enjoyed reading this book, and I imagine the author enjoyed and had fun writing this book.

ADDITION: I choose this book as the most fun read for year 2016.
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