Reread this today. A companion piece to his On Bullshit.

Again, seems so relevant to today’s political climate.

Some interesting points. Doesn’t faithfully represent postmodernism among other things.

Insightfull

&

Relevant to the Processes of How

The ( mainly Westernized cultures

Produce & Confirm

"Truth" ( -ness )

& How to meet the Criteria of a Given Truth-form (.)

decided i was better off reading cliff notes

Although I think the subject of Harry Frankfurt's book is immensely interesting, this book wasn't. Frankfurt argues that truth is important because it is useful in people's lives and that the discovery of truth provides people with an understanding of the limitations of reality. The argumentation is sound, but the book could have been more substantive. For example, he could have given detailed cases that demonstrate the usefulness of truth and the limitations people can discover by virtue of understanding reality. But the essay is sketchy when it comes to details. And, again, this is in spite of the fact that I agree with his reasoning to the importance of truth. I should say, though, that the presentation of the topic of truth is similar to the presentation of the topic of BS. Where that book succeeded and this book failed was in the need to delineate the concept that was being presented. With the previous book, there was a need to delineate the concept of BS. Here Frankfurt does not feel as though he needs to delineate the concept of truth, but rather frame commonsense ways that truth is important, which leads to a somewhat boring book.

If you have to choose between reading On Bullshit and On Truth, read this one. It's more accessible and more pungent at the same time. Very much worth my time to read, then re-read, then read again as I worked to understand all that is in this small book. What Frankfurt argues is not that truth exists or matters, but that we must be both responsible and devoted to the truth lest we hurt ourselves, others, or the whole of society by creating a world that is essentially too small for us. "How, then, can we fail to take the importance of factuality and of reality seriously? How can we fail to care about the truth? We cannot."

A short and compelling defense of truth

Pragmatic approach to the question of whether truth really exists. Frankfurt interprets the object-subject dilemma in a different way. Emphasis on the importance of truth for how the subject deals with the object.

Funny, pithy and dead-on accurate, this work was a bit more serious than its predecessor On Bullshit as it managed to wipe the floor with the train-wreck that is post-modernism, demonstrates why a society that goes out of its way to ignore the truth will fail, and just what the heck is so important about being truthful anyways. The only complaint I had about the work is Frankfurt's seeming obsession with being a bit too cutesy at certain points. Other than that, an amazing amount of material is covered rather painlessly and with extreme brevity.

4.5

Um dos meus filósofos favoritos.

2nd read:
I care about the truth a lot. Sometimes, I think I care about the truth more than most. Recently, I’ve been dealing with a ton of people who say bullshit (statements with a complete disregard for the truth), and it’s been driving me up the wall. The question I always come back to is, “Why does truth matter?” Well, Frankfurt wrote the book On Bullshit, which I recently gave another read, so I decided to read this one again, and it helped me feel less insane.

While many people out there don’t care about the truth, this book explains why it’s important. He explains how the truth helps us function as a society, helps us know who we can trust and most importantly, it shows us what path to go down. When people are just saying bullshit, we’re chasing down the wrong problems and then wasting time on the wrong fixes, which is something people can’t grasp for some insane reason.

So, if you’re one of the (seemingly) five people out there who actually care about the truth, read this book. If you’re someone who doesn’t care about the truth and just says things, you definitely need to read this book. I binged it in one sitting, and it’s just as amazing as the first time I read it.