Ep. 327: Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit and Authenticity (Part One)
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth discuss the celebrated 1986 essay "On Bullshit."
Does bullshit necessarily involve lying? Frankfurt defines it as instead indifferent to truth, though still deceptive about what kind of speech act the audience is supposed to think that it is.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of the Partially Examined Life is brought to you by Masterclass. |
| 0:04.0 | Learn from the best, be your best, Masterclass. |
| 0:07.5 | Oh my, Shopify! |
| 0:11.0 | Sell online today. |
| 0:20.5 | You're listening to the Partially Examined Life, a podcast by some guys who had one point |
| 0:24.0 | to set on doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it. |
| 0:27.5 | Our question for episode 327 is something like, what are alternatives to truth-telling? |
| 0:33.0 | And we read Harry Frankfort's essay on bullshit from 1986. |
| 0:37.0 | For more information, please see PartiallyExaminedLife.com. |
| 0:40.0 | This is Marklinson Meyer, Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 0:42.0 | And while I do care that what I say is true, there are other competing, often compelling interests at play. |
| 0:48.0 | This is Seth Paskin, not susceptible to the liberation which volition on necessity can provide in Austin, Texas. |
| 0:55.0 | This is Wes Aulone, centrally interested in the truth values of my statements in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
| 1:01.5 | And this is Dylan Casey, blowing hot air with no concern for the truth at all in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 1:08.0 | Alright, we had to have at least one person who's on the side of bullshit. |
| 1:16.0 | Mine was ambivalent. |
| 1:17.0 | Taking a stand. |
| 1:19.0 | So we just recorded, or rather you all just recorded, a single week ago, Dylan and I are both about to go traveling. |
| 1:28.0 | So we wanted to fit in one more episode before this all happened. |
| 1:31.0 | And this was a short essay. |
| 1:33.0 | It had been often requested as we actually got into it. |
| 1:36.0 | I felt like I want to know a little more about him and not just this article that I saw him talking about on John Stewart in 2006. |
... |
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