On bullshit

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On Bullshit is the original title of a book by the American philosopher Harry Frankfurt . The work is a 80-page term explanation of the English word bullshit (German about bullshit , nonsense , empty talk ). The text first appeared as an essay in the Raritan Quarterly Review in 1986 and became a bestseller in the United States in 2005 as a bound single edition .

content

The term "bullshit"

The vulgar word bullshit (literally "bull shit") referred to in the English vernacular a certain kind of talk that the gesture often pretentious, content is but empty. Most aptly, the expression can be translated with the new German word Hohlsprech , to a limited extent also with Salbadern . Related words as nonsense , nonsense , nonsense , nonsense and balderdash missing from the Germans, the connotation of the presumptuous . The expression Geschwurbel also points in this direction, but has an additional connotation of incomprehensibility that is not part of the term bullshit .

The initial question

At the beginning and again at the end of the text, Frankfurt notes that we are constantly surrounded by bullshit in our culture . What interests him most is the bullshit that becomes visible in public life, especially in advertising and public relations , for example by parties and politicians, where advertising, PR and politics are now very closely related. Bullshit inevitably comes about when people are forced or even given the opportunity to talk about things they don't understand enough about. Unfortunately, this is very often the case in public life. As the second cause of a flood of bullshit , Frankfurt cites the widespread belief that in a democracy every citizen must have firm opinions on all matters affecting his country . In addition, many who see themselves as consciously moral agents even want to evaluate occurrences and conditions around the world; if factual knowledge is lacking, bullshit inevitably arises here too .

Frankfurt's aim is to develop a theoretical approach that goes beyond the colloquial use of the term, precisely describes bullshit and allows bullshit to be identified.

Max Black: The Prevalence of Humbug

The first text that Frankfurt discusses in search of this handle is Max Black's essay The Prevalence of Humbug (1983). The term humbug is somewhat milder in tone than bullshit , but presumably denotes something very similar in substance. Black defines humbug as: "(not quite enough to lie) misleading misrepresentation of one's own thoughts, feelings or attitudes, especially through presumptuous words or deeds" . He uses it to describe some of the characteristics of humbug , which Frankfurt believes also make bullshit :

  • the misleading, deceptive intent
  • the misrepresentation, which is not the same as a lie
  • the arrogance or pretension that can (but does not have to) be the motive for bullshit being talked about

Who bullshit but not a misrepresentation of the matter about which he speaks, but a misrepresentation of himself he wants to create a certain impression in others about themselves and about what goes on in his head to - talk, provides a misrepresentation..

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein devoted a large part of his philosophical energy to identifying and combating certain forms of nonsense. Frankfurt notes that Wittgenstein named and thought through a characteristic of bullshit that Black missed: sloppiness. Anyone who talks bullshit usually does so without care, without paying attention to details, without intellectual discipline, without striving for objectivity, without considering standards; he follows his impulses and whims unhindered.

However, the lack of care is not a clear criterion for bullshit . In addition to coarse, bungled bullshit, there is firstly also ingeniously devised bullshit , for example in advertising and PR, where experts today make use of highly developed techniques from psychology , opinion and market research . Second, there is not only sloppy, vague, nebulous bullshit , but also bullshit that is overly detailed, concrete, and specific.

Frankfurt's definition

As the quintessence of bullshit , Frankfurt defines the complete indifference of the bullshitter (i.e. the person who speaks bullshit ) to the truth . The bullshitter doesn't care whether what he's saying is true or false; he doesn't even try to give a careful description of reality. At the end of the book, Frankfurt comes to the conclusion that the contemporary popular spread of bullshit has deeper causes - in a form of skepticism towards access to objective facts or descriptions of reality. This leads to the assumption that it is impossible to know how things really are. So many " bullshitters " are ultimately not interested in an accurate representation of the real situation, but in an honest approach to their own self: Since the facts are hardly or not at all ascertainable, the bullshitter cannot sincerely approach reality, but he can sincerely seek access to yourself. Since we humans are now volatile and lacking in substance, sincerity is itself bullshit .

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary essentially confirms the use that Frankfurt had made of the term bullshit until then. He finds the metaphor “hot air” mentioned there appealing, which, like the metaphor bull shit, refers to the emptiness, the insubstantiality of speech.

Ezra Pound: Canto LXXIV

Frankfurt discovers another characteristic in Ezra Pound's poem Canto LXXIV (1948). In this poem, Pound's lyrical self undertakes to confront a bullshitter . Instead of empty talk, he demands facts. Bullshit is bluff . It's more of a fake than a lie, which also sheds new light on the fact that it doesn't have to be sloppily done.

Eric Ambler: Dirty Story

Frankfurt receives the next suggestion from a passage in Eric Ambler's novel Schmutzige Geschichte (1967). One of the characters makes bullshitten a survival technique in this thriller and probably does better with it than with lies. First of all , it occurs to Frankfurt that a bullshitter usually finds more tolerance in his environment than a liar, and that bullshit , because it is so much more vague, is perceived less as a personal attack than a lie .

Second, the pair of terms bullshit and lie shows itself from a new perspective: a lie is so sharply focused, the requirements of the lie are so strict that the liar, if he wants to be successful, has to practice his craft very precisely. The bullshitter, on the other hand, has plenty of room for imagination and improvisation; compared to the liar, he's kind of an artist.

Augustine: De mendacio

The last text that Frankfurt resorts to is Augustine 's treatise De mendacio . The author differentiates between eight types of lies, seven of which are not lies in the strictest sense, because it is not the aim of the liar to tell an untruth. It is quite different with the eighth type of lying, in which lies for the pleasure of deceiving ; for Augustine only this is the true lie.

Because the bullshitter is not at all interested in the difference between true and false, Frankfurt concludes that it is not the lie that is the greatest enemy of truth, but bullshit .

expenditure

  • Original title: Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 .
  • German translation: Harry G. Frankfurt: Bullshit . Translated from the English by Michael Bischoff . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-58450-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

Unless otherwise noted, all references to the text refer to the original English edition.

  1. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 1, 22 .
  2. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 62-64 .
  3. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 1 f .
  4. ^ Max Black: The Prevalence of Humbug . Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY 1985 .; original English text online. Retrieved November 12, 2013 .
  5. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 4-6 .
  6. ↑ Original text: deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody's own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes
  7. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 6‒18; 53-56 .
  8. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 19-22 .
  9. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 22-29 .
  10. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 30-34 .
  11. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4008-2653-7 , doi : 10.2307 / j.ctt7t4wr .
  12. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 34-37 .
  13. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 37-43 .
  14. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 43-48 .
  15. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 48-50 .
  16. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 50-53 .
  17. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 56-58 .
  18. ^ Harry G. Frankfurt: On Bullshit . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2005, ISBN 0-691-12294-6 , pp. 61 .