Came across Harry G. Frankfurt’s little philosophical treatise On Bullshit today, published in 2005, and decided to read it some time soon, because, alongside the slightly lurid but admittedly intriguing title, the following small quote made me curious:
the production of bullshit 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.
Being sceptical as I am, I sense convoluted language and the attempt to be controversial and provocative just for the sake of it, but it might be relevant in terms of
- artists concerned with lying, faking, “truth” and hoaxes
- makeshift modes of production - botching, tinkering
- aesthetics of uncertainty
- decline of expert knowledge
- rise of amateur culture
- reconsideration of dilettantism.
See here for a slightly longer extract from Frankfurt’s book.
September 15, 2007 at 5:48 pm
[...] weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit in a book shop in Toronto. I had come across it earlier this year and made a vague mental note to [...]