Hey People!

I've set up a book discussion date for this book, "On Bullshit." Want to read & discuss a short (76 pages), funny, non-fiction book written by a well-known philosopher? This is it. We're meeting, in person, July 26 (Wednesday night) at 8pm at a coffeehouse in Studio City. Wanna come along? Send me a message.

We have about 12 others who are reading the book and coming to the discussion, so far. We'll limit it to 15 people who commit to being there. It's hard to discuss a book with more than that number. Of course, it's likely that not everyone will show up, so we'll probably have fewer than that at the discussion.


Here's the official Book Description:

"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."



Let me know if you'd like to join us!

Brian