On Bullshit Reviews

• Short and Sweet

  
  By A3KFKAATW8O0AX on 2005-03-16
  I got this book after seeing Prof. Frankfurt on the Daily Show with John Stewart. Having a bachelors degree in philosophy I was intrigued. Here are some of my observations:
  
  1) This book is not traditionally funny. If you are looking for a joke book get one, this is a work of philosophy and as such has a degree of intellectual humor. Some of the observations and comments are funny but overall this is not a joke book, rather it is designed with a specific philosophical purpose... (he's an "ivy league" Philosophy Professor and published by Princeton)
  
  2) Very short but to the point. I read the whole book in less than an hour. That being said there is a lot of content which deserves meaningful reflection... its one of those books that you will probably end up going "ahhh haaa" at least at one point.
  
  3) Inexpensive. Its under ten bucks... some may say that its pricey for such a small book but if you enjoy it, whose to say what the intrinsic value will be to you down the road.
  
  4) Warning... this is not the most complex or even dense piece of philosophy. Certainly its not like reading Hegel or another "headache philosopher" but this is a work of philosphy. As long as you know that going into this there should be no problems. A friend of mine read this book thinking it would be comical and fun, almost expecting jokes and punch-lines... he was disappointed.
  
  The last thing I will say is that I really enjoyed the book and I can imagine many people really reading this book a couple of times and really liking it. I am already recommending it to some of my friends and lawschool professors... If you do decide to buy this book... ENJOY!
  
  

• A well-fertilised discussion

  
  By A2VE83MZF98ITY on 2005-03-10
  My first surprise about this book (other than the title, which I cannot add to this review due to the propriety involved) is its brevity. Given the vastness, at least in potential, of the subject matter, the book could fill volumes. Of course, the author Harry Frankfurt might argue that there are indeed already volumes and volumes of balderdash. He states at the beginning that 'One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much', er, humbug. 'Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share.'
  
  Frankfurt claims that the issue has not attracted sustained inquiry (he obviously has not been part of the committee meetings I've attended in the past few decades). This book, or rather booklet, is more of a brief essay or primer on the subject, looking at the issue from a linguistic standpoint as well as conceptual framework. There are many synonyms that come close; words such as humbug and balderdash (already used in this review) approximate the title term. Quoting Max Black's essay, 'The Prevalence of Humbug', Frankfurt suggests other closely related words such as claptrap, hokum, drivel, and such. Drawing from the OED definitions, he analyses the key elements of humbug, including misrepresentation just short of lying, elements of pomposity and pretentiousness (loosely applicable), and a possibility of embodiment in feeling or in thought.
  
  Frankfurt also explores the issue of the title term in relation to an incident between Ludwig Wittgenstein (whose philosophical work reaches great heights in clarity and precision, particularly with regard to language and locution) and Fania Pascal. Wittgenstein's substitute term for the title term might have been 'nonsense', and he was diligent at working against such forms of language that might fall into disarray. When is a joke not a joke? Perhaps when it is uttered by Wittgenstein. Or perhaps when it is misinterpreted by Pascal.
  
  Frankfurt looks at the title term in pieces. He looks at the term 'bull' and the later half separately, seeing what difference they make to each other. A 'bull' session is generally unstructured, personal, emotion-dominated. The other term is similarly unstructured for the most part, indicative of waste and odour, and generally not useful, save in very particular circumstances. There is a general lack of importance about it. But is this really true?
  
  Frankfurt quotes the OED's use of the title term as verb (previously he had been looking at it from the standpoint of a noun), drawing Ezra Pound's Cantos into the mix, and the Bible as well. There is a sense of bluffing - one could easily use the title term in regard to something someone says that probably is not going to be true, or not going to be done.
  
  Frankfurt even draws St. Augustine into the mix, attaching the title term to the rarest form of lying among Augustine's construct of the eight types of lying. It isn't necessarily lying to attain a goal, but rather for its own sake. But then, what becomes of the definition of humbug, offered earlier, that claims to stop just short of lying.
  
  Frankfurt claims that the title term, perhaps as a thing or an act, 'is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.' This comes close to being a universal truth. Frankfurt proceeds to talk about anti-realist doctrines, sincerity versus correctness, and finally, to making a declaration that makes the reader wonder, was this entire thing an exercise in seeing just how much of the title term he could get away with as an author? If so, he is brilliantly tapping into the postmodern ethos.
  
  Or perhaps that is all hokum, too.
  
  
  
  
  

• Cut the Crap

  
  By A2B9Y0WXNSN17U on 2006-04-04
  This little book (or should I say pamphlet) is surely a smash hit, thanks to its catchy and fearless title, but this kind of thing could only be published by an established author or scholar, whom publishers are afraid to refuse or criticize. An earlier reviewer suggested that this tiny tome might be the result of a bet between the esteemed philosophy professor and a student or colleague, and I tend to agree. Here, Frankfurt ruminates very thinly on the philosophical issues behind BS, with a standard intellectual obsession with obscure writers and unnecessarily snooty words like "procrustean," "pleonastic," and "inapposite." But in the end little more is accomplished than a boring discussion between windy people over tea and scones. (By the way, in an example of some real BS, this review forum does not allow me to type out the full title of this product, even though that same title is plastered all over the sales information. But I digress.)
  
  Now let's talk about the true BS here. This book is the size of a pocket pamphlet, with large print spread out over just 67 pages, with an average of about one paragraph per page. If Frankfurt's screed were published as a chapter in a regular-sized book or in a magazine, it would be around seven pages long. But still, Frankfurt's publisher is charging [...] for this little pamphlet which anyone could easily finish off in less than hour. Now that's BS, so I suggest you make like me and cut the crap by getting this from your local library. And in the end, Frankfurt reaches the conclusion that BS is different from lying, and that a few previous writers have tackled the subject in slightly interesting ways. But this is merely an incredibly inconsequential and directionless philosophical exercise by an elder statesman with a little too much time on his hands. In closing, my review here is almost as long as the book! And that's no bull. [...]
  
  

• Does no one get the joke?

  
  By A2Z6BXEMDDLJ5Z on 2005-12-27
  After reading the reviews in this forum it is clear that virtually no one gets the point of "On Bulls!#t." Harry Frankfurt's "On Bulls!#t," which is a popular essay that has been reprinted as this little book, is one, big, brilliant, joke. And that's why it's so darn good. Unfortunately, it seems that most all reviewers, even those who have sung the book's praises, simply don't get the joke.
  
  This book is multilayered. It "works" on two levels. To simply look at this book on its face is to miss its entire point! "On Bulls!#t" is not the pedantic analysis of the concept of "BS" that it superficially presents itself as being: it is much more. Those reviewers who slam the little book, saying it is itself nothing but "BS," are getter warmer, getting closer to "getting" the joke, but alas, none of the reviews I've read here quite hit the nail on the head.
  
  Taken on its face, Frankfurt's "On Bulls!#t" is a witty philosophical analysis of the concepts of "BS," and "humbug," how they differ, how "BS" differs from a lie, and why it is a greater enemy of the "truth" than a lie is. "On Bulls!#t" works on two levels because, while Frankfurt is setting up what some may take to be a 70-page shaggy-dog story, he actually does have a few astute and important things to say, as when he argues that one of the reasons why there is so much BS out there is that in democratic societies most people feel it's their DUTY to have an opinion about virtually everything, including a great many things they know little-to-nothing about. This is unfortunate, for when the claims in one's orations exceed their supported and valid knowledge on the subject, BS is the natural result. Also interesting is when Frankfurt comments on those who deny the possibility of valid "objective" knowledge about the external world, and how this also results in relativistic "BS." Aside from being interesting to read, some of Frankfurt's arguments are just plain laugh-out-loud funny, as when he explains how hot air is like excrement, or when he analyzes the famous interaction between Pascal and Wittgenstein.
  
  With all this said, let us now return to the main point of this review: that all interesting passages aside, "On Bulls!#t" is actually one big joke played on the reader, as revealed by the little book's brilliant last line (I won't give it away). Only if one gets the joke will one get the important and powerful point of the book. Nothing Frankfurt actually SAYS in "On Bulls!#t" should be taken too seriously. Though the book is on its face a philosophical analysis of the concept of "BS," as many reviewers here have noticed, while analyzing the word, Frankfurt doesn't provide us with much more than a bunch of it. In other words, the book itself IS A BUNCH OF BS. The important point that so many reviewers have missed is that HE'S DOING IT ON PURPOSE; he's feeding us BS to make his point. Some philosophers, such as Wittgenstein, think that it's much more powerful to SHOW someone your point rather than TELL them. That's what Frankfurt is doing. The very point of his brilliant essay "On Bulls!#t," IS THAT THE VERY KIND OF PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS ON DISPLAY IN THE BOOK IS NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF BS. Rather than explicitly arguing that this is the case, Frankfurt deceptively and cleverly makes his point by showing us, by mocking such philosophical analyses in general while meaninglessly expounding upon the concept of BS. In other words, he's feeding us a crock of what he considers BS while at the same time offering writing that many consider to be what philosophers do. That he doesn't totally take himself seriously in the book is telegraphed by several absurd passages, (such as when he mockingly and repeatedly [supposedly] quotes the Oxford English Dictionary--it shocks me that anyone would take him seriously when his only resource is a bloody dictionary!!) and if the reader hasn't picked up on this fact by the end of the essay, he throws on the last line, which should be a dead giveaway. Sadly, however, many people just don't seem to get his joke.
  
  
  

• On Bulls_it - The Fifth Element

  
  By ARG3N345EVKYV on 2006-10-27
  Cable news, politics, religion, advertising, entertainment, the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything - all are infused with the malodorous miasma of bulls_it - the real force that binds our galaxy together and allows popular culture as we know it to exist.
  
  As a philosopher (popularly perceived as purveyors of elitist, academic bulls__it) Frankfurt is no bulls_itter himself (wink), and this deeply superficial treatise invokes St. Augustine, Pound, and Wittgenstein; superb examples of bulls_hit by citation. An insightfully outtasight postulate inclusively distinguishes bulls_it from other forms of humbug or puffery by contrasting "indifference to how things really are" (bulls_hit) with lying, which is by necessity false" - at least from a certain point of view. The bulls_it artist "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, bulls_it is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are." Profound insight or execrable exegesis, paper or plastic. Deep thought is a stern duty imposed by a harsh, uncaring, universe.
  
  Frankfort softly declaims that the rise of bulls_it has been assisted by "forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality." He also notes that "the production of bulls_it is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts" - an observation summarizing the rise of neo-conservative and fundamentalist bulls_it.
  
  Heaping piles of bulls_it are also investigated - a "contemporary proliferation" is noted even as the author confesses that he can't assume that the "incidence is actually greater now." Even 19 years ago, when this book was written, "The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bulls_it so unmitigated," he writes, "that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept." - all of this before Karl Rove and the shrub burst upon the scene.
  
  Unfortunately a quantitative vs. qualitative analysis of bulls_it eludes the author's grasp. Currently available logical, mathematical, philosophical, and scientific tools are presented with intractable challenges when asked to evaluate the relative bulls_it of "Hannity and Colmes" vis-a-vis the "O'Reilly Factor." Theology, the ur-disciple of bulls_hit is especially blind and helpless. Where would Frankfurt put President Bush's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction: is he an "honest man" (bulls_it alert), a "liar," or the accomplished bulls_itter who "does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly?" Throwing quotes around is cerebrally-correct, but any real bulls_itter must answer the big questions.
  
  "On Bulls_it" is short, sweet (if not smelling), and apropos - the most profound examples of bulls_it usually go unnoticed, but not this one. In describing bulls_it Frankfurt's missive becomes bulls_it; sophistry in the service of philosophy as bulls_it is to truth. Should be required reading for anyone old enough to vote. And yes this entire review is bulls_it, except for every last word.
  
  
• Proof that BS is recursive
  By A3F7XLGCTTUMWP on 2005-10-01
  A book like this doesn't merit much of a review. Not because it is short and brief, but because it is vacuous. The author's musings on BS could have been put together in a half-page for the New Yorker. The main conclusion of the book is that people BS because they want to impress others and thereby magnify their stature both publicly and privately. This is neither new information resulting from novel argumentation nor even well analysed in the text. By the way the book is 67 pages long with double spacing throughout, and only the size of pocket diary. I give this information to help quantify the BS it contains. Having read it, I concluded that it was a complete waste of my money.
  
  
• From Lowbrow to Nobrow
  By AA5TNB0TMTFFJ on 2006-11-08
  I was quite disappointed to find this "book"--pamphlet-sized, large fonts spreading out over sixty plus pages, roughly a paragraph per page--living up to its title. It is really no more than a glorified lecture from an established philosopher who, it would seem, has become big enough to pull a con job on his readers. In the end, Frankfurt takes all this time to reach the conclusion that BS is different from lying, in my opinion hardly worth the paper it's printed on. All in all, an inconsequential and not very entertaining analytical exercise by an emeritus academic with too much time on his hands. If you want to read a work that lives up to being called "entertaining" and "enlightening" you could try "From Lowbrow to Nobrow" (2006).
  
  
• Provocative Title Reveals Topic Worthy of Deeper Discussion
  By A13E0ARAXI6KJW on 2005-02-17
  Professor Harry Frankfurt has come up with a compact winner with this provocatively titled tome, all of eighty pages, about a subject around which we all seem to have a vast amount of experience. As a professional philosopher who has earned emeritus status at Princeton University, he surely must be a master at this topic and sets about to prove it by discussing it with irony, broad humor and a cheekiness that ultimately brings a certain seriousness to his work. He is especially effective in portraying the mental improvisation we go through when asked unexpected questions that require thoughtfulness. Whether it is within the context of a political opinion or literary analysis, the very act he discusses actually provides great motivation for someone to learn more about what he or she is saying.
  
  What Frankfurt does is take his analysis several steps further by saying his subject, if left unaddressed, will lead to such an altered perception of reality that we will not know what reality is. His argument about his subject as an indictment has merit, though at times, he seems to be carried away with his own rhapsodizing, rather ironic given the topic. According to the author, the very lack of sincerity in some schools of thought, epitomized by the rise of Nazism, for example, has led to a retreat from the ideal of correctness. I would have never thought of Nazism as the result of common BS, but Frankfurt makes this thinking seem entirely logical and that indeed it is a bigger threat than the outright lie. But he does not dwell on the delivery of such a message, as BS is more easily detectable than a lie, at least from most perspectives. A master at this topic fakes opinions with finesse, but he or she does not necessarily get things wrong. That is exactly the threat described perceptively by the author as "a lack of connection to a concern with truth". In essence, the search for truth becomes a moot point when there is no concern in finding it. I applaud Frankfurt for his audacious and attentive little book, as it reflects a fertile mind taking on a subject we all know intimately but rarely take so seriously. Highly recommended commuter reading.
  
  
• Much Rhetoric about Nothing
  By A3QZ0KCGHEV6R2 on 2006-01-25
  This book is not only absurdly small (it is actually just a short essay which the publishers managed to stretch into a tiny hardcover format, where each paragraph takes up a whole page - and each footnote half of it) but it doesn't even have anything non-trivial to say.
  
  The author begins by claiming that there is so much bull***t being told in the world nowadays - which is a nice way of getting the reader hooked on it, hoping to find out more about the issue, i.e., who is producing all this bull***t, where and by what means, and most importantly WHY or WHAT FOR.
  
  But this little essay isn't going to answer any of those questions. Instead, the subsequent paragraphs are filled with Oxford Dictionary quotations and references to a handful of philosophers, poets and writers, in order to chew over the actual meaning of the word bull***t or other expressions similar to it... As if the reader couldn't pick up the dictionary himself and find out on his own what this little term stands for (in case he happens not to know it yet), compare it with others, and so on.
  
  After fifteen minutes the experience is over and the reader knows as much as he did before. At best he has learned about a few linguistic nuances. There isn't any profound thought worth quoting, because our philosopher isn't telling us much anyway - all we learn is that bull***ting is more than just lying. What makes people resort to the first, he doesn't say.
  
  In the end, you might learn more about bull***t if you chat about the issue with mum over breakfast, or with Mrs. Smith next door, or with your drinking buddy on a slow evening. At least there nobody would claim to have more to say than the usual everyday platitudes about life.
  
  Or if you are really interested in getting properly informed about this issue, just pick up the wonderfully rewarding book "Your Call Is Important To Us - The Truth about Bull***t" by Laura Penny.
  
  
  
• I depends on what you were expecting.
  By A1BS8COOV71S4E on 2006-06-12
  I confess that when I bought this book, I expected it to be a sort of quasi-satiric send-up of bulls**t. Then by about p. 10, I began thinking it was a really serious scholarly treatment of the subject. (I mean after all - a professor emeritus of moral philosophy at Princeton?) But as I got further into it, and after reading about 20 of the 140 reviews of the book on Amazon (how many books get 140 reviews?), I began to get the picture. It is indeed a humorous book--not a quasi-satiric har-har kind of joke book, but a very dry sort of academic humor. In fact, I believe it's an academic put-on--in fact, bulls**t about bulls**t. It is highly self-referential in the sense that a great deal of what it says about bulls**t is applicable to the book itself.
  
  Most of the reviewers who figured this out gave it a low rating because they felt they had been conned by the catchy title and resented paying ten dollars for what is little more than a short essay conflated into a publishable format. In some cases, there might have been some degree of humor-impairment involved, but in most, I think it was simply disappointment and the feeling of having been cheated. But I think that misses the point of academic put-ons.
  
  We hardly need to be told that there's a lot of bulls**t in today's culture, but I think it's relevant here to note that a lot of it is found in scholarly literature that sounds like bulls**t to anyone not privy to the particular discipline it is targeted to, but is sincerely meant to be taken seriously by its authors. (Frankfurt's last sentence, tellingly, is, "sincerity itself is bulls**t.") This can lead to fairly serious issues about misrepresentation, which is one of the central elements in Frankfurt's definition of bulls**t. If one perceives a work like this as intending to be taken seriously, then one has a right to feel that it has misrepresented itself and to be pretty disgusted at being taken in. But if one perceives it as a put-on and appreciates it on that level, then misrepresentation is not a problem.
  
  A more serious example is known by the name of the Sokal Affair (see the Wikipedia article under that title). In this case (quoting from that article): "[Alan] Sokal, a professor of physics at New York University, submitted a pseudoscientific paper for publication in a postmodern cultural studies journal, as an experiment to see if a humanities journal would, in Sokal's words, `publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions' " There was a great brouhaha over all this because the journal felt Sokal had misrepresented his article as a piece of serious scholarship, and Sokal felt that anyone with good sense should have been able to tell it was bulls**t. Frankfurt's book may suffer from some of this ambiguity, and it may not be worth ten dollars (and certainly won't cause a major brouhaha), but if you can swallow the cost and appreciate the rather peculiar sort of humor involved, you may find it worthwhile.
  
  
• The Title Says It All
  By A2ATWKOFJXRRR1 on 2005-07-14
  "One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much BS." And so begins this little (and I do mean little) 67 page book by Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor of philosophy at Princeton University.
  
  This book's rise to fame is strictly based on the author's appearance on the comedy news show 'The Daily Show' with Jon Stewart. Now I enjoy 'The Daily Show', and absolutely loved "America the Book" written by Jon Stewart and the other members of that nutty program. But the reason I had such high praise for Mr. Stewart's book was because I laughed and learned, and the book was well put together and insightful - if somewhat bathroom humorish at times. So when my favorite news show seemed to endorse this odd title, I went out and grabbed a copy.
  
  Where to begin?
  
  Let's start with the title, since that seems to be a buying trigger for some (as it was for me). "On Bulls&@t" is catchy, no doubt. So when you crack open the pages of this tiny book, you'd expect some extrapolation on bulls@!t's appearance into modern culture, how it's affected us, and what it's like today (or how it's mutated).
  
  But once you start to read this incredibly boring treatise on ...I'm not even sure what to call it! At first I thought that maybe the author was poking fun at his own book and his own philosophy. I mean, philosophy itself is inherently inward looking, forcing us to view things in new and often odd ways. If this was Professor Frankfurt's goal, I fear he hasn't accomplished it for a number of reasons:
  
  First, the Professor decides to give us a thesaurus-style look at the word "bulls@!t". He tells us that it is similar (and different) from words like "balderdash" and "humbug" and the like. Then the author takes aim at literary references, even putting his ill-aimed sights on Longfellow!
  
  Second, we have this ridiculously droll circular reasoning that permeates the book throughout. Example from page 63: `Bulls@!t is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bulls@!t is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed 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.'
  
  Third, the value of the book ($10.00) isn't worth the amount of information You might see value in giving this book (as a gift) to the office clown because of its witty title, but I'd recommend saving your hard-earned cash. There's no direct quotes or examples of modern day bulls@!t (no social/political commentary) which is a terrible omission. I think the Professor was trying to avoid personal strife by leaving these items out, but in so doing lost credibility. There are also no quirky antics or phrases that'll catch you off-guard; in short, something with very little monetary or cerebral value.
  
  Fourth (and I have to point this out), is that many people probably feel this book is beyond them because it deals with "philosophy" and was written by a "philosophy Professor from Princeton." This may cause the "Since I don't understand all of this, it must be good" syndrome to form in some readers minds. I wouldn't avoid the book (nor rate it) on this basis. Rate it for what it is: the second word in the book's title.
  
  
• 5 stars for marketing for a book with a few insights
  By A1PY6SJT8UHL92 on 2005-02-22
  I can see why this book is causing some mixed reviews... I fundamentally agree with the Amazon reviewers that think this is a book whose object somehow also includes itself. It is also true that you can find much of this book online, if you just do a quick search with Google. So, there is no serious need to purchase this booklet, which I guess may still be an interesting addition to one's library, maybe something to attract your guests' attention if you leave it on the coffee table in your dining room. I suspect this is the reason why this book is so popular. Days after the New York Times published a review, you already have to wait two or three weeks before receiving it from Amazon. It sold rather quickly. I wonder if the same would have happened if the title had been "On nonsense", or "On the prevalence of superficial thoughts", or something like this, with only a brief remark about the fact that the title also referred to what we call B.S.
  
  But you WILL find here some "deep thougths" such as the following: "Why is there so much B.S.? Of course it is impossible to be sure that there is relatively more of it nowadays than at other times. There is more communication of all kinds in our time than ever before, but the proportion that is B.S. may not have increased." Or "B.S. is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of B.S. 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." So, it seems to me that this booklet is just a collection of thoughts about the general fact that people of all kinds and periods find easier to talk superficially about things, rather than spending time looking for depth. But, at the end of the day, we *all* are to some extent *always* talking about "matters of which they are to some degree ignorant". There is nothing that we completely and absolutely know. Not even ourselves. The author rightly points out that "As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them. Moreover, there is nothing in theory, and certainly nothing in experience, to support the extraordinary judgment that it is the truth about himself that is the easiest for a person to know.". Overall, it seems to me that it's just all nonsense, to some extent (including this review, of course), at least if you do not believe in some God.
  
  So, even if I can think of many better ways to spend the nine bucks this booklet costs, I can also think of many worst ways. I am not really sure the author's theory on B.S. makes any sense, but reading a few pages of this book may generate in your mind some interesting thoghts about the nature of reality, truth and lies.
  
  
  
• Beware: We are being experimented on
  By A3GHFTNQ87KOCQ on 2005-06-13
  I received this book as a birthday present and was of course intrigued by the title. I read the book in 45 minutes, served myself a glass of scotch then tried to decide what the book really was about and why I thought it was the most boring book I have read in a long time. As I understand this book is selling briskly and I think it is because of the : '' I don't understand what Mr. Frankfurt is writing about so then it must be a good book'' syndrome.This brings me to my theory about why the book was written in the first place. I believe that Mr. Frankfurt decided to write a book about '' bull..' with the the title ''On bull..'' and see if he could fool people into buying it.He maybe even published the book together with his philosophy students at Princeton just to show how easy it is to publish ''bull..'' . I can see them laughing their heads off as more and more people order this piece of ''bull...''. As a book I give it 1 star. As an experiment to show how silly human beings have become I would have given it 5 stars. Mr. Frankfurt, did you really read this yourself?
  
  
• This book is bullsh*t.
  By A3HAIZKSF5M6R6 on 2005-10-23
  For a book discussing bullsh*t you'd think the author would veer away from the unbelievably excessive wordiness (which is itself a totally obvious form of bullsh*t) that is rampant in this book. Was that the point? Is it supposed to be a joke? That a book on bullsh*t was written in such a bullsh*t way? I only read about 15 pages before I put it down because it was too much of an effort for such a blase topic. The writing is so unclear, the sentences so longwinded and excessively wordy that it's difficult to understand what on Earth he is talking about.
  
  I majored in linguistics and have never seen a published author write so incomprehensibly and trying so hard to sound intelligent. I can't believe it was published this way. It's a book about "bullsh*t." How intelligent do you need to make yourself sound? After going over the sentences about 8 or 9 times each I could get a vague idea what he was talking about. His ideas could have been explained much more clearly, without all the "bullsh*t.".
  
  I give it two stars, one for it's cute size, and the other for the novel idea of writing about "bullsh*t." Other than that, this book is bullsh*t.
  
  
• A waste of money
  By A29B4PAIOL7HYG on 2005-11-07
  I had heard interesting reviews of this book. What a crock of you know what!
  
  Frankfurt proves that if you put a provocative title on a book and talk about Bull**t somebody will be stupid enough to buy it. Glad I got it on sale.... I only blew $6.99 - but that was still over $1.00 a page...
  
  Incidentally, I only gave it a 1 because there was no way to give it a Zero.
  
  
• Be an informed consumer: This book barely contains any information, it is BS
  By A2BNOKPW7LK1ZB on 2005-12-23
  I believe in the power of informed consumers, so read this review and know what you are potentially purchasing. First, the book itself is tiny: ~4" x 6.5", more like mini-book. Second, the font and margins in this already small book are formatted for a children's book so there is barely ANY content in this book. If the fonts and margins were formatted for a normal adult book, the whole thing would probably be about 30 pages in length. It's no wonder you can't "search inside" this book beforehand because that would reveal how ridiculous the whole format of it is. Lastly, of the available content, there is hardly anything useful to learn about the subject. There is some gibberish about the word "humbug" and some random anecdotes that do nothing in the way of a useful exploration of BS.
  
  I think this is just Frankfurt's tongue-in-cheek jab at anyone that seriously wants to examine the topic of BS in an academic manner. He is basically saying that anyone who wants to read about BS deserves to lose $10 for buying a complete piece of worthless BS (his book). I would hesitate to purchase any more of Frankfurt's "books" out of fear that I may fall prey to more of his chicanery.
  
  There, I just wrote a review longer than the entire text of this book.
  
  
• Self-important embarrassment
  By A398IY8CVAAOHL on 2006-08-12
  I was looking forward to this, but it is unreadable. You will cringe at what feels like a smug and pompous college student's first essay.
  
  
• Modern day moral philosophy made fun
  By A3SYKSRQULONJM on 2005-02-17
  While this edition is in book form, "On Bullsh*t" is really an essay. So, if you order it, expect to receive a very tiny book. And if you search the Internet for more than a few minutes, you'll probably find the complete text fairly easily. I'm pretty sure this essay has been floating around for a couple of decades. Having said that, this is a thought provoking and entertaining look at an important aspect of moral philosophy.
  
  Everyone, at one time or another, finds him/herself irritated, agitated or otherwise -ated about the bullsh*t they endure. And who among us hasn't contributed in some way with bullsh*t of our own?
  
  Dr. Frankfurt's comparison of bullsh*t to humbug was a little bit lost on me. After all, my only exposure to the word "humbug" has been Scrooge's exclamation in "A Christmas Carol." But, it did cause me to rethink some scenes from Dickens' book.
  
  The comparison of bullsh*tters to liars is the meat here. Dr. Frankfurt convincingly explains that liars understand and respect the truth enough to deceive their listeners into believing a falsehood, while bullsh*tters have no regard for the truth whatsoever. They are concerned only with how their audience perceives them.
  
  In classic philosopher style, Dr. Frankfurt builds on his own ideas and climaxes with the rather surprising notion that "sincerity itself is bullsh*t!" arguing in a way that will have you believing it.
  
  I have no idea when exactly this essay was written, but I did notice that there was absolutely no mention of the Internet. In fact, there was only a passing mention of bullsh*t in mass media of any kind. I found myself wanting to read more about that. Of course, that topic might bloat this little book from 80 to 800 pages.
  
  Unlike some other reviewers, I'm giving Dr. Frankfurt extra points for the title. A philosophy book about bullsh*t certainly can't have some bullsh*t, scholarly title. This title says exactly what the book is about, no more, no less, no bullsh*t.
  
  For a philosophy book, this is a very fun read. Even though you can probably find it online, it's a very nicely bound little volume that will be good to have around to reread occasionally. You might want to buy a small supply to leave as anonymous gifts for your favorite bullsh*tters.
  
  (note: sorry about the *'s, but Amazon wasn't publishing my review.)
  
  
• This book is bullsh*t
  By A4PLLJC8BCQOV on 2006-06-14
  I honestly could not wait for the book to finish. You would think the author would explain why there is so much BS in the world today but this book only defines what types of BS there are. The definitions are long and drawn out and sound like a bunch of psychobabble. Don't waste your time.
  
  
• Let Looks Not Deceive You
  By A1ZQWX7ZZ5Z5GU on 2005-09-10
  In truth, I purchased this book at my local bookstore based solely on its cover. Though my mother always said not to judge things that way, I couldn't resist its plainness, with the front cover's only glimmer of color coming from the shining silver letters of the eye-catching title, "On Bulls--t". I quickly picked it up and riffed to a random page, wanting to be enticed just one more time before I finalized my decision to purchase. I came across this line: "Excrement is not designed or crafted at all; it is merely emitted, or dumped." "Hey, this sounds like my kind of book," I thought to myself.
  
  I took it home and immediately began on it. I was humored by the first few pages, and the manner in which he began by invoking the "dictionary definition" of the word, in much the same way that middle and high school students open their essays that revolve around one specific word or theme. Though there were no specific points where wit was to be found, I did recognize the way in which he was joking with the presentation itself.
  
  Carrying on to the next ten to twenty pages, however, I came to a realization: he wasn't joking. Frankfurt carried on with his dictionary train of thought, calling upon reinforcements in the form of some other author's definition of "humbug," which he only loosely connected as being synonymous with "bulls--t" before using it as the basis for his own arguments.
  
  He then carried on into an example of "bulls--t" which, upon minimal inspection, can be found to be full of inexcusably weak logic and baseless assumptions.
  
  I give this book a poor review based not solely on the fact that the presentation of the text is unacceptable, but also because I get the feeling that Frankfurt has tried to pull a fast one on us here, a sort of irony: the plain prsentation of the cover, which enticed me to buy the book, was completely misleading with regards to the actual content of its text. In other words, Frankfurt bulls--tted me. He also bulls--tted me out of seven dollars. Aside from being a great book to place on a coffee table in order to start conversation ("Haha, 'On Bulls--t'. This book looks neat. What's this about?" "It's a long-winded explanation of the dictionary definition of the words bull, bulls--t, humbug, s--t, and other terms. It's not very funny, either, unless you buy it, because then you can laugh at yourself for being bulls--ted by such an ironically titled book."), it doesn't serve much good to the legacy of swear words.
  
  
• Well Titled
  By A144JD2POU0TED on 2005-11-28
  This was a quick read (30-40 minutes) and was itself filled with bulls**t. I thought an academic could have done more on the subject. Save yourself a few dollars by not buying it. If you want to read it, request a copy at your local library. It's not something you're going to want to have on your bookshelf for the long term.
  
  
• An Essay on a Social Tool
  By A23GFTVIETX7DS on 2005-12-04
  This short exploration of the history of the title word (which reviewers are not permitted to use) is really more of an essay in hardback rather than a book. Frankfurt analyzes some of the history and the meaning of the word, likening it to "humbug" and distinguishing it from lying. Perhaps the most interesting conclusion Frankfurt draws is the b.s. artist's disregard for the truth; that is, the artist talks without knowing or caring whether he is right or not. It is the telling, and not the content, that has importance for such a speaker.
  
  I found myself wishing that Frankfurt had also delved into the psychology and sociology of humbug: why people feel the need to use it, why it is accepted, what purposes it can serve, its effects on both listener and speaker -- the very reasons for its widespread use. Instead, Frankfurt is more interested in the philosophy of it: its definition and distinguishing characteristics. This emphasis and its drawn out, sometimes redundant arguments opens this book to charges of being bull itself (although Frankfurt does seem to care about the truth.) The conclusion seems overblown and far too self-important for such a slim essay: "As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them." The problem is, Frankfurt has not given a wide enough scope to his treatise and therefore does not give a full significance to his topic.
  
  I will say this much for the essay: it has prompted me to be more conscious of b.s. in use. As I read Frankfurt's essay, I filled in my own theories of the psychology of the bull artist, and so it did indeed spur thought. Despite this, I found myself wishing for a deeper, more comprehensive examination.
  
  
• Insights Most Needed by the People Who Won't Read This Book
  By AVGGEAI1YGSAP on 2005-07-18
  Harry G. Frankfurt, the author of this slight but thought provoking book, is a Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University and a renowned moral philosopher. This is a serious discussion regarding the fact that bull---- occupies such a central role in much of the discourse which occurs in practically all facets of our culture, yet to the author's apparent chagrin this phenomenom "has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry". His goal is no less audacious than than "to begin the development of a theoretical undestanding of bull----, mainly by providing some tentative and exploratory philosophical analysis". In my opinion, this discussion admirably achieves that goal; it also provides wonderful insights into modern day communication. But do not be mislead by the title, while very interesting and quite enjoyable, this discussion is neither light reading nor lighthearted in nature.
  
  This book has three distinct attributes which I am certain in combination (and probably individually as well) make it unique among volumes which have appeared on the adult non-fiction best seller lists. First, the above mentioned fact that its author is a Philosophy Professor at Princeton University. Second, that it is published by the Princeton University Press, a definite indication that this is indeed a serious scholarly work. Third, that the complete text is only sixty-seven mini-pages in length. Thus, this is in fact only a moderately long essay undoubtedly meant to provoke both debate and further thought.
  
  There are four elements of Frankfurt's analysis, and while they are largely sequential they do intersect somewhat with each other.. First he proceeds to attempt to provide some sort of definition of bull----, or at least to give his readers an understanding of what he means by the term. Second, he examines why there is so much of it. Third, he outlines what functions it serves. Finally and most importantly, he discusses why "we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us".
  
  This book should be viewed as a relatively concise introductory volume to the exploration of Frankfurt's radical conclusion that the proliferation of bull---- today is because the notion of honesty and truth has been replaced by a belief in the importance of sincerity and this itself is bull----. My only complaint was that in a few places his discussions of the historical linguistic background of the term seemed a little tedious, but by the conclusion of the discussion I realized that the time spent integrating the historical and descriptive linguistic discussions was indicatve of his academic mode of inquiry and helped buttress his conclusion.
  
  I strongly recommend this thought-provoking essay if you are interested in a possible explanation of why the proliferation of conversation in our culture today (think cell phones, reality TV, talk radio, and over five hundred channels) has combined with the need for "instant expertise" and focus on supposed transparency to supply us instead with a plethora of bull---- artists who are constantly painting beautiful pictures which unfortunately have only a tangential connection to reality.
  
  While the author's understandably discussion proceeds in very broad generalities, I would like to suggest three groups who would be very well served to read this book in order to gain an understanding of why they are held in such low esteem. Undoubtedly, both the politicians and business leaders to whom it so broadly applies will be too busy to take the brief amount of time necessary to study it. In any case, they would probably would not absorb its implications and recognize its applicability to many of their statements even if they did take the time o read it. Most interestingly, it seems to me that this book is implicitly a very strong indictment of a major segment and perhaps even the majority of Frankfurt's colleagues in academia and their embrace of both deconstructionism and the politics of personal sincerity. He seemingly attacks the professional skepticism rampant on so many campuses, embraces the concept of honesty and rejects the "sincere bull----" so much in vogue today. THREE CHEERS FOR PROFESSOR FRANKFURT, and his willingness to examine the nature and the weaknesses of the relativism and the lack of concern for the truth which dominate so much of our discourse today.
  
  Tucker Andersen
  
  
• no bushit
  By A3N3BTX0UBW9GQ on 2005-05-17
  An arrow to the heart, and neither pedantic nor self-righteous. It goes from dry hilarity to concise philosophy in the wink of an eye. Wonderfully free of scholasticism and self-indulgence, and you can read and comprehend it (initially) in an hour. The self discipline and rewriting keeps it from being a clumsy 300 page waddle through redundant erudition. Best read in maybe 25 years.
  
  
• You don't need to pretend to like this one.
  By ATN1SSKTJD8Z8 on 2005-07-11
  This is a philosophy book, but its popularity is a fascinating study in psychology. You've gotta figure that because it's short, different, and boasts the word "sh-t" in its title that people are willing to give it a read. Once they do, I can't imagine many of them truly like it, but I think they're afraid that saying they don't like it will make them seem unsophisticated. I'm here to absolve you of any such feelings of inadequacy.
  
  This "book" is a actually a philosophy paper - which is fine; it isn't a very good philosophy paper - which isn't fine. After making the unsupported statement that "bullsh-t" is overwhelmingly pervasive in our society, Frankfurt spends 7/8 of this paper defining what exactly that "bullsh-t" is. I'll save you the reading: Bullsh-t is less than a lie, but is actually worse; you see, a liar knows the truth and respects it as the adversary of his/her statement. A bull-sh-tter, on the other hand, doesn't care if his/her statement is true or not, and thus has no concern whatever for the truth and is really far more dangerous than an outright liar.
  
  I know this isn't a long book, but you could be 100 pages into a good book by the time you finish this one. Save yourself all of the comparing and contrasting of "bullsh-t" with "humbug" and "hokum" (I'm not making this up!) and spare yourself getting trapped into saying you liked this book to seem sophisticated and intellectual for people who haven't even read it.
  
  Skim this one if you absolutely must know what everyone is reading, otherwise skip it and get 100 pages into a good book instead. Either way, don't feel like you have to say this is a great book.
  
  
• Why?
  By A2O0GYFT35RIX6 on 2006-01-04
  Why was this book written? It could only exist post-Clinton. In a world where we say, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." This book is a bunch of double-speak and useless quotations.
  This book has no beginning, no ending, and a weak middle. One may notice that most glowing reviews include the big positive that it is so short. The author could have done one better by writing his essay on a napkin in crayon.
  At least "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" is funny. I kept waiting for a reason why this book was written. It is not funny, it is not informative, the conclusion tells one nothing, it is not controversial, and it is not interesting. It is short. Whoopee!
  
  
• A life-changing work---Five Star Review
  By A2FU6J7XA5CT03 on 2006-03-10
  The rewards of reading and re-reading this small, sure-to-be-a-classic volume are limitless. When one grasps Professor Frankfurt's thesis, one's life is changed forever. While a very funny book, it is not a joke book or anything to be taken lightly. It reflects serious analysis of a subject that we all think we know but don't really. The last sentence of the book says it all.
  
  Upon reading my review on-line, I realized that I had hit the wrong button and given this book only one star when I meant to give it five and so I am now attempting to correct it...and that's no BS.
  
  
• Waste of Time - It is BS
  By A3A48TSO95S1YY on 2006-03-19
  The only thing good about this book it the title. You are hooked by it and just like a bait and switch con artist you find that there was only one of those special bargin item in the store, and it went before the store opened. Save your money and time. It is a great example of BS.
  
  
• Succinct and succulent.
  By A2UCHH399IO62O on 2005-05-17
  The book is brief. To say, however, that it is only 80 pages would be like saying that one has a flawless, blue-white diamond that is only 80 carats.
  
  God bless my sister Suzanne for reading this book aloud to me.
  
  Professor Frankfurt truly is a master of his craft. Buy this book; 'twould be money well-spent even at twice the price.
  
  
• A Thoughtful Look At Contemporary Affairs!
  By ALR35EFI69S5R on 2005-05-20
  The first book that sprang to mind as I read through this sometime hilarious, yet often perceptive short tome was Talcott Parson's ponderous, turgid, and nearly unreadable two-volume sociological treatise on the "Structure of Social Action", a book that became legend to the counteless undergraduate students majoring in sociology who found themselves obligated to struggle through it in order to fulfill the requirement for a Social Theory course. Academic C. Wright Mills later rendered a scathing albeit comical critique of the Parsonian style in a clever and insightful book, "The Sociological Imagination" in which he warned, as does the present author, of the dangers implicit in high-sounding language not clearly grounded in solid and observable reality.
  
  Thus inoculated at a relative early stage of my academic experience about the tendency to use language to persuade and propagandize rather than to illuminate and accurately portray the state of the solid bloody landscape of modern society, I enjoyed the author's observations of how everything from the purchase of automobiles to voting for the president is corrupted by the ever-present scourge of bullshit in our culture. What Mr. Frankfurt succeeds so marvelously in depicting is the way in which almost every salient aspect of contemporary society has been dominated and trivialized by this use of language to alter our perceptions in ways that have nothing to do with the observable truth.
  
  Thus, an anti-environmental clear-cutting lumber program devastating to the National Forests is offered by the Bush Administration as a "Healthy Forests" initiative, or an invasion of a sovereign nation such as Afghanistan is depicted as an exercise in "Democracy-building". Never mind the fact that the new President of Afghanistan is a former executive officer of the international oil cartel now attempting to control the land within Afghanistan to facilitate the construction of a cross-country pipeline; he is described as an Afghan patriot. Of course, the examples one can employ are not merely political or social or economic; they are endemic to our devolving society and to our so-called contemporary culture.
  
  Frankfurt's book offers a theory as to what this "scourge of bullshit" represents, how it operates, and why it has flourished in the last several decades. And since all of us had so much personal experience dealing with aspects of the phenomenon, it is difficult to either deny or sidestep the points he makes so well. The most frightening aspect seems to be that in spite of our recognition of the problem, there seems to be little appetite for dealing directly with it, or for any meaningful attempt to eradicate it, or any energy organized toward movement beyond its effects, most likely because it is by now so deeply embedded in the cultural style of our society that it is impossible to separate from the fabric of our culture. Anyone who can consider Michael Jackson an artist has to have a hard time figuring out where the so-called truth ends and the bullshit begins. Alas, this is an entertaining, edifying, and immeasurably valuable book, and one that deserves your attention. Enjoy!
  
  
  
  
  
  

• On Truth
• Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments of Politicians, Priests, Journalists, and Other Serial Offenders
• Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference