November 15, 2008
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The philosophy of bullshit ...
I'm reading a new book. I love to read philosophy, and although this book is in the popular philosophy genre, it's a couple notches above the poetical sentimentality that usually passes for popular philosophy.
In "Bullshit and Philosophy" - and yes, my boys have given me grief for reading a book with a word on the cover that they would get in trouble for using - Gary Hardcastle and George Reisch have compiled and edited a series of essays that examine the bullshitter's practice of "not caring whether or not what he says is true."
What's important to this person is that speech is clever, memorable, persuasive. Not that it's true.
We're surrounded by it. We expect a certain amount of it in advertising. We expect a certain amount of it from politicians, scientists, educators ... from any group which has a viewpoint they are espousing.
In the midst of all this bullshit, though, it seems that Americans have no idea how to judge the merits of an argument. What makes a position logically defensible? When we are fed nothing but manure, how do we develop a taste for the real thing? Would we even know the real thing if it came along?
Just saying ...
Comments (34)
Write on. Judi
This should have been on the best sellers list eight years ago when Bush was selling us Iraq...might have saved many innocent lives on both sides.
I am SOOOO finding that book! Thanks for blogging about it!
I've gotta read that book myself, thanks for pointing it out.
This sound like a book my friend Bogden would love. You have given me the PERFECT Christmas gift idea. Thank you. (I would enjoy it but Bog would love it)
I saw this book and wondered if it would be good to read. I'll take your post as a recommendation. I have no doubt that our culture has long ago cast aside philosophy and exchanged it for BS. I spent three years teaching 8th graders formal logic, I wish I had this book to supplement my curriculum back then.
Rational thought should be a suitable plow through the BS. People are getting a lot lazier about analyzing the information they hear. They also have to remember that just because BS comes in a big, pretty package with ribbons and bows, it's still just a box of BS.
oh wow...thinking of politics and pundits
Bullshit is relative.
Thanks for the book review! I have a friend who is constantly parodying stuff; sometimes it frustrates me that he won't be serious, but he's really hilarious when I relax!
I have a friend who has ear guards - that sort of resemble elf ears - that she puts on whenever she is concerned about what she's hearing. The message on the ear guards...."Bullshit Filter".
sometimes it becomes too easy to be cynical and skeptical ...
there should be some sort of mathematical philosophy ... where you learn how to break down the whole into its parts and ferret out the truth ...
i believe we have our own sense of truth and what is (or should be) right ... even logical ... we have to exercise our own integrity and sense of right and go from there
somewhere i heard or read ... believe only half of what you see ... half of what you hear ... or something like that ...
It’s better to be hated for who you are than be loved for who you’re not ------ VAN ZANT
and that's no BS..................
@menskeet - half of what you see and none of what you read......................................
@Alive_in_Vegas - thank you for the correction ...
and Van Zant's words couldn't be more true ... mind if I borry them?
@menskeet - not at all....................
@slinky - suggest you check facts before you assign blame or declare bullshit................
Is that one of Open Court Books' "Popular Culture and Philosophy" series? I love those! Blackwell Publishing has a similar series, but I haven't read any of theirs yet.
@Scriveling - yes! Prior to this my two favorites in the series have been Monty Python and Philsophy, and Batman and Philosophy but I have about 10 of these and I've enjoyed them all. I did not know that Blackwell was doing this - I will check those out! Thanks!
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy is my favorite, but I'm really looking forward to Jimmy Buffett and Philosophy, due out next spring.
Lord of the Rings and Philosophy is one I haven't read yet. I have read so much Tolkien and books/essays about Tolkien that I've had that one on my back burner. On your recommendation I'll move it up front! (Oh, I also really liked Matrix and Philosophy, I think that was the first of the series I bought.)
I'm adding this one to my list.
of course you know you've now placed me in the position of getting into trouble by forcing me to go buy a book. i have a coupon. hopefully it's not one that's already on sale!
[dude...i'll use any excuse to buy a book. i'm just that easy]
There are some factions of the composition and rhetoric theorists/scholars/practitioners who are actively teaching their students (first year comp in college, specifically) about how arguments are constructed - what construes a good argument, how it can be deconstructed, etc. People in the world of English (subsets) are bringing back Aristotle's ideas of rhetoric and thinking about them, incorporating them into their pedagogical goals. Rhetoric went the way of the dinosaur in the Western World at least two centuries ago, when it was more important to sound pretty than to have good ideas. At the beginning of the 20th century, Harvard started the first year composition program in order to fix their incoming students and put them on the same page with regards to spelling, grammar, and other formal attributes. Formalism reigned for a while, and after that came ideas that writing should be done to express oneself only - feelingswise - or only to catalogue information. "Rhetoric" as such didn't really come back until twenty years ago, and it's making a slow comeback with the rest of society, even academia. Sorry if this is too much of a tangent... but I'm hoping that higher education is just one front on which rhetoric is blowing its way back into sosiciety. And the sad/amusing thing is that I can reference/footnote most of my facts and ideas above
sntimental but to obligatory of which is though on a person in which is like the swirl of that sky?
an enlightening post on Xanga! Thank you for this. I did not know about this book or the philosophy series in general; will have to check it out.
@BoureeMusique - not sad or amusing IMHO; impressive rather that you know so much about it. Keep spreading that truth.
In our modern culture this is so true! With all the Infomercials and fake documentaries it becomes harder and harder to tell who is BSing and who is telling the truth. I am 57 and grew up in a different age, now a days, I wonder what younger people are able to understand about rhetoric and 'spin'. It is almost as if we take a dash of truth and put it into the media blender,, and once it is mixed in with the rest, it is hard to tell!!
Good point!!
Rosemoss
What this book says apply itself not only to Americans !!!!
But it applies to all our modern world .
We have to keep our free and open mind .
BTW , we were at the same moment at Ang ' s site !
Love
Michel
RYC: Soups and stews are such blessings. I've already planned out the containers I can put my leftovers in - some for the fridge and some for the freezer
It'll be a good winter.
LOL _ Around here (with a 14 year old and almost 12 year old) I've stopped planning to have leftovers. It seems that no matter how big the pot of soup, there's never enough left for anymore than maybe a thermos in someone's lunch the next day.
I too will have to check this book out. It sounds like an interesting and intelligent read. Thanks for posting about it! <3 SuZ
thanks for the sharing!
Can you imagine a world without BS? Where arguments are well constructed and honest? Where the population is informed and thoughtful? O, that our educational system could teach and encourage this! O, that the people cared enough to put in the work!
Thanks for the book rec!
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