دانلود کتاب On bullshit

این ممکن است برای کسانی که هنوز در “جامعه مبتنی بر واقعیت” زندگی می کنند بسیار آشنا به نظر برسد و باید با دنیایی که توسط کسانی که این کار را نمی کنند به تشنج بپردازند. اما فرانکفورت چنین پیامدهای سیاسی را به خوانندگان خود واگذار می کند. در عوض، او به یکی از منابع گسترش بی‌سابقه مزخرفات در سال‌های اخیر اشاره می‌کند، شک پست مدرن به حقیقت عینی به نفع صداقت، یا همانطور که او آن را تعریف می‌کند، وفادار ماندن به تجربه ذهنی. اما چه چیزی باعث می‌شود فکر کنیم که هر چیزی در طبیعت ما پایدارتر یا ذاتی‌تر از آن چیزی است که خارج از آن نهفته است؟ بنابراین، فرانکفورت، با مشاهده‌ای به کوچکی و کامل بودن بقیه این کتاب نفیس، نتیجه می‌گیرد که «صداقت خود مزخرف است». –مری پارک

On bullshit

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, “we have no theory.”

Frankfurt, one of the world’s most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

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. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner’s capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Amazon.com Review “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit,” Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. “Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.” This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge–what it is, what it does, and why there’s so much of it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can’t be denied; part of the book’s charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word “bullshit.” More pertinent is Frankfurt’s focus on intentions–the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it’s true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter’s complete disregard for whether what he’s saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he “does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”