Ooh Ooh That Smell

Whoa – what’s going on here? A renowned Princeton University philosopher, Harry G. Frankfurt, has just hit the best seller lists with his recently released book On Bullshit (Princeton University Press). The not-so-stinky, 80 page essay climbed into Amazon’s top ten this week, and was recently profiled in the New York Times (worth the link if only to see how they handle reprinting the title).

Check out this passage from his piece:

Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more excessive than his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life, where people are frequently impelled — whether by their own propensities or by the demands of others — to speak extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorant.

Frankfurt nails it – bullshit is the businessman’s shortcut. Whenever he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he makes it up, and bullshit is born. But businessfolk beware -- audiences are on to it like never before. Thanks to googling, blogging, blackberrying and other digital mischief, bullshit can be exposed the nanosecond it leaves someone's lips.

Only thing wrong with Frankfurt’s point of view is that circumstances rarely require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. That’s almost always a choice, not a dictate. Ever hear of “I just don’t know”, or “I haven’t studied that enough to be articulate about it” or “Let me get back to you”?

But enough quibbling with details. We LOVE Frankfurt’s book, especially because he got it past publishers with that title. And we are ecstatic that bullshit has made it to campus – and Princeton, no less! Kudos Harry!