Book Read Free

Bullshit and Philosophy

Page 32

by Reisch, George A. ; Hardcastle, Gary L.


  Hume, David

  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

  A Treatise of Human Nature

  Hussein, Saddam

  Huxley, Aldous

  Eyeless in Gaza

  Ibsen, Henrik

  Hedda Gabler

  The Wild Duck

  if-then reasoning, and framing effects

  information cocoons

  inquiry

  definition of

  as social activity

  inquisitorial legal systems

  inspirational stories, and truth

  intellectual expertise, role of, in resisting bullshit

  Intelligent Design (ID) movement

  as bullshit

  and concern for truth

  and creationism

  as “getting away with something”

  goals of

  disguising

  successive reinvention of

  Iraq war, official reasons for

  irony, impossibility of

  Ishiguro, Kazuo

  The Remains of the Day

  James I, King

  Johnson, Philip

  Darwin on Trial

  on modernism

  Jones, John E.

  Kant, Immanuel

  Kennedy, Edward

  Kennedy, George A.

  Keynes, John Maynard

  Kierkegaard, Søren

  Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District

  Kuhn, Thomas

  Laden, Osama bin

  Lakatos, Imre

  language

  pragmatic aspects of

  semantics of

  law, as cousin of rhetoric

  Leary, Timothy

  Leno, Jay

  Leroy, J.T.

  letters of reference, as bullshit genre

  liars. See also bullshit: and lies

  goal of

  tactic of

  Limbaugh, Rush

  Loman, Willy (character)

  logical positivism

  on metaphysics

  on unity of science

  Lomborg, Björn

  The Skeptical Environmentalist

  Luther, Martin

  MacKinnon, Catharine

  Mamet, David

  McCarthy, Joseph

  McLean v. Arkansas

  McLuhan, Marshall

  Mele, Alfred

  Self Deception Unmasked

  Mencken, H.L.

  method of common sense

  Meyer, Stephen

  Mill, John Stuart

  Miller, Arthur

  Miller, William Ian

  on apology

  Faking It

  on politeness

  Moore, G.E.

  Principia Ethica

  Nagel, Thomas

  narrative, as structuring understanding

  Newton, Isaac

  Principia Mathematica

  Nietzsche, Friedrich

  Thus Spake Zarathustra

  on Truth

  Non-Bullshit Marxism Group

  No-True-Scotsman Move

  Nussbaum, Martha

  Oberst, Conor

  Olbrechts-Tyteca, Lucy

  The Onion

  “open society,”

  Orwell, George

  Nineteen Eighty–Four

  Pacino, Al

  Pascal, Blaise

  Pascal, Fania

  Peirce, C.S.

  Penny, Laura

  Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth about Bullshit

  Perelman, Chaim

  performative bullshit

  Perry, William

  personality disorders

  and bullshit

  effect on social relations

  distortion in

  in DSM–IV

  maladaptiveness in

  rigidity in

  and self–distraction

  types of

  persuasive definition (PD)

  backfiring of

  and change of sense or reference

  disguised argument in

  and semantic negligence

  and tone

  persuasive quasi-definition (PQD)

  changing tone in

  philosophy

  as anti-bullshit

  and bullshit

  semantic studies in

  philosophy of language

  intension and extension in

  sense, reference, and tone in

  Pinker, Stephen

  How the Mind Works

  Plagiary (academic journal)

  Plato

  The Republic

  on rhetoric

  on Truth

  politeness, role of

  politicized science

  and lack of universal standard of proof

  Popper, Karl Raimund

  pornography

  Model Law definition of

  positivism

  postmodernism

  pragmatists, philosophical

  on truth

  Pratchett, Terry

  product placement

  professional bullshit

  and pseudo-value

  pseudoscience, as bullshit

  pseudo-sentences

  pseudo-statements

  public discourse, debasement of

  rape, changing definitions of

  realism, philosophy of

  redefinition, low and high

  Reid, Thomas

  reliability, as bullshit concept

  republic of philosophia

  rhetoric

  as associated with bullshit

  contemporary study of

  as examining effects of language

  learning

  as metalinguistic

  as misunderstood discipline

  rhetorica docens

  rhetorica utens

  Rich, Frank

  risk aversion

  Rorty, Richard

  Ruse, Michael

  Russell, Bertrand

  Schiappa, Edward

  Schudson, Michael

  science

  inquiry in

  lack of universal standard of proof in

  and policy-making

  confusion over

  difficulty of

  and context

  science-policy interface, bullshit in

  scientific attitude

  scientific fraud

  scientific method

  and distrust of authority

  self-bullshitting

  and personality disorders

  and self–distraction

  self-deception

  and inflated self-image

  paradox of

  semantic diligence

  semantic negligence

  and backfire

  semantics

  September group

  sham reasoning

  as different from bullshit

  “Shut Up” (song)

  sincerity, impossibility of

  Singer, Fred

  Singer, Peter

  skepticism, philosophical

  Socrates

  Sokal, Alan

  Sophists

  split-brain patients

  confabulation in

  Stevenson, Charles

  Stewart, Jon

  Stoic view, of emotions

  Strauss, Leo

  Thouless, Robert

  tone, in language

  Tonight Show (TV show)

  truth

  as fatiguing

  as offense

  pluralism of

  as situational

  value of, to good relationships

  truth-lie dichotomy, as oversimplified

  Unitarianism

  university mission statements, bullshit in

  Utilitarianism

  Vienna Circle

  as anti-bullshit

  “Scientific World-Conception” (manifesto)

  Wason selection tasks

  and framing effects

  ‘we are waging a war on terror’, parsing the mec
hanism of

  Weber, Max

  Wilde, Oscar

  Wilson, E.O.

  Winfrey, Oprah

  Wittgenstein, Ludwig

  bullshit in

  Woolf, Leonard

  word of mouth advertising

  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

  Zola, Émile

  ALSO FROM OPEN COURT

  Monty Python and Philosophy

  Nudge Nudge, Think Think!

  Edited by

  GARY L. HARDCASTLE and GEORGE A. REISCH

  VOLUME 19 IN THE SERIES,

  POPULAR CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY®

  With its logical paradoxes, clever wordplay, and focus on the absurdities of life, the work of Monty Python appeals to everyone with a philosophical bent, the more bent the better. Twenty-one surprising chapters by professional philosophers and amateur Python fans celebrate the intersection of rigorous, profound TV comedy and zany, madcap metaphysics. Surprise is the chief quality of this book. Surprise, provocation, and a fanatical devotion to the enlightenment of the masses ...

  “Monty Python fans like to think they’re smarter than most people, and they’ll be delighted with this new book, which proves it!”

  —KIM ‘HOWARD’ JOHNSON

  Author of The First 280 Years of Monty Python

  “an entertaining treatise on how humor can illuminate the deepest questions about ethics, morality, individual responsibility, and other so-called ‘serious concepts’ (such as: ‘Is the parrot dead or just resting?”).

  —DAVID MORGAN

  Author of Monty Python Speaks!

  AVAILABLE FROM BOOKSTORES OR BY CALLING 1-800-815-2280

  For more information on Open Court books, go to

  www.opencourtbooks.com

  1

  “On Bullshit” first appeared as an essay in The Raritan Review VI:2 (1986), and was then reprinted in Frankfurt’s The Importance of What We Care About (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 117–133. In 2005, “On Bullshit” was published as the book, On Bullshit (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Throughout Bullshit and Philosophy, all references to On Bullshit are to the 2005 edition.

  2

  Among the many books critical of the second Bush administration are several by former Washington insiders and United Nations officials who offer first-hand accounts of alleged manipulations of intelligence used to promote the Iraq war. There is, for example, Richard A. Clarke’s Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror (New York: Free Press, 2004); John W. Dean’s Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (New York: Little, Brown, 2004); Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh’s Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (New York: Tauris, 2005); and Hans Blix’s Disarming Iraq (New York: Pantheon, 2004).

  3

  René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 12. Emphasis in original.

  4

  David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993), p. 114.

  5

  Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis. Translated as The Scientific Conception of the World. The Vienna Circle, and reprinted in S. Sarkar, ed., The Emergence of Logical Empiricism from 1900 to the Vienna Circle (New York: Garland, 1996), p. 321.

  6

  Rudolf Carnap, “Überwindung der Metaphysik durch Logische Analyse der Sprache,” Erkenntnis 2 (1932): pp. 219–241, translated as “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language” in A.J. Ayer, ed., Logical Positivism (New York: The Free Press, 1959), pp. 60–81.

  7

  Originally published in S. Buss and L. Overton, eds., Contours of Agency: Essays on Themes from Harry Frankfurt (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press), pp. 321–339. Reproduced as Chapter 8 of Bullshit and Philosophy. Throughout Bullshit and Philosophy, all references to “Deeper Into Bullshit” are to the work as it appears in this volume.

  8

  Frankfurt himself has also replied briefly to Cohen: “Reply to G.A. Cohen,” in Contours of Agency, pp. 340–44. Here Frankfurt arguably cedes ground to Cohen’s critique, but maintains the significance of the intention-oriented bullshit he defined. Truth-indifferent bullshit, Frankfurt insists, much more than the kind of academic obscurity Cohen targets, threatens our “respect for the distinction between the true and the false” on which the very “conduct of civilized life” depends (p. 343).

  9

  The essay is in The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 4 (Harcourt, Brace, 1968), pp. 127–140.

  10

  G.A. Cohen, “Deeper into Bullshit,” Chapter 8 in this volume, p. 118.

  11

  See Frankfurt’s “Reply to G.A. Cohen,” in Contours of Agency, pp. 340–44.

  12

  Thanks to my colleague Erich Freiberger, who got me started on this topic, and my wife Tonia Cook Kimbrough, who improved an earlier draft and, in general, calls bullshit whenever I have it coming.

  13

  Oprah Winfrey, January 11th, 2006, during a CNN broadcast of the Larry King Show.

  14

  The Oprah Winfrey Show, January 26th, 2006.

  15

  The difference between what Frankfurt cites as Wittgenstein’s reaction to suspected bullshit, with what I will claim is Moore’s, is instructive.

  16

  The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (London: Allen and Unwin, Volume 1, 1967), p. 61.

  17

  Sowing: An Autobiography of the Years 1880–1904 (London: Hogarth, 1960), pp. 110–131.

  18

  Keynes, Two Memoirs (New York: Hart-Davis, 1949), p. 85

  19

  “Hedonism,” in Tom Regan, ed., The Elements of Ethics (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), p. 41

  20

  “My Early Beliefs,” in Two Memoirs (pp. 88–100). But Woolf takes exception to some aspects of Keynes’s recollections. D.H. Lawrence, mentioned in the passage, had met the young men at Cambridge at the turn of the century and was violently disgusted by what he thought was their lack of reverence, an interesting connection, conceptually, to the topic here.

  21

  Moore’s “A Defence of Common Sense” was originally published in 1925 in J.H. Muirhead, ed., Contemporary British Philosophy (London: Allen and Unwin).

  22

  On Bullshit, pp. 60–61.

  23

  Frankfurt was interviewed on WBUR’s “On Point” (17th February, 2005).

  24

  A useful introduction to the ID movement and its critics is Robert T. Pennock, ed., Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001).

  25

  Philip Johnson, Darwin on Trial (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1991). For writings on “complexity” and related concepts in ID theory, see those by either Michael Behe or William Dembski (readily accessible on the internet).

 

‹ Prev