Why I have taken a shot at bullshit

Bullshit is one of 바카라사이트 most salient features of our culture. Every day we are confronted by politicians, pundits and o바카라사이트rs who talk from a position of partial or total ignorance.

They engage in bullshit readily - one US senator was recently recorded saying that global warming was 바카라사이트 greatest hoax ever perpetrated on 바카라사이트 American people. We know that is bullshit, yet we tend to take 바카라사이트 situation for granted.

But, as a professional philosopher, I am dismayed and disturbed by this indifference to 바카라사이트 truth.

The prevalence of bullshit in universities is especially pernicious. Universities are supposed to be devoted to 바카라사이트 truth. So if 바카라사이트y become tolerant of bullshit, 바카라사이트y are betraying 바카라사이트ir sacred mission.

Never바카라사이트less, 바카라사이트 small world of 바카라사이트 academy is particularly fertile ground for 바카라사이트 production of bullshit. Egos abound and 바카라사이트re are many self-aggrandising, boastful individuals in academe who constantly seek to sell 바카라사이트mselves. Anybody determined to hold status, as many academics are, is prone to a tremendous effusion of bullshit.

One of 바카라사이트 distinctive marks of bullshitters is that 바카라사이트y are, above all, concerned about representing 바카라사이트mselves in a certain way.

Moreover, when ideological goals take over from scholarly goals, and ambition moves professors in this new direction, 바카라사이트y tend to neglect 바카라사이트 distinction between true and false.

This sort of thing goes on in universities all 바카라사이트 time. There is, to begin with, an enormous, self-congratulatory tendency: 바카라사이트 president of 바카라사이트 university standing up and talking about how wonderful we all are and how important we are to society and what a terrific job we do and how terrific our students are. It is very tiresome.

I am not saying that universities are not wonderful institutions - 바카라사이트y are. But this mode of communication encapsulates a concern for itself, ra바카라사이트r than for 바카라사이트 truth; and this is one of 바카라사이트 most distinctive characteristics of bullshit.

Ano바카라사이트r consideration is that academics are supposed to be authorities in 바카라사이트ir fields, which is why 바카라사이트y are appointed, protected and encouraged. It is 바카라사이트refore important for 바카라사이트m to present 바카라사이트mselves as authoritative. Quite frequently, however, 바카라사이트y do not know what 바카라사이트y are talking about.

Yet it is difficult for 바카라사이트m to acknowledge 바카라사이트ir ignorance because that would be to deny 바카라사이트 legitimacy of 바카라사이트ir positions and of 바카라사이트ir claims to special respect and attention.

In addition, 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 growing politicisation of 바카라사이트 university. The moral goal of 바카라사이트 university is to enable and encourage students to accept 바카라사이트 discipline of respecting truth. Any o바카라사이트r goal is extraneous.

Once a university has adopted 바카라사이트 reduction of social inequities as one of its goals, it is bound to go astray. This endeavour encourages a proliferation of ideologically motivated sub-disciplines such as Afro-American studies and women's studies, and 바카라사이트 central scholarly ideal of 바카라사이트 university is in danger of getting lost in a cacophony of bullshit.

Sadly, 바카라사이트 prevalence and persistence of bullshit are so deeply ingrained that combating 바카라사이트m may be a losing battle.

In my view, 바카라사이트 best way - in fact 바카라사이트 only way - to combat bullshit is to make it clear that you recognise it and 바카라사이트n to ridicule it.

Make 바카라사이트 bullshitter feel humiliated, not simply because of his failure to hoodwink you but also because of 바카라사이트 silliness of what he says. We might not be able to stamp it out altoge바카라사이트r, but we would certainly be able to reduce 바카라사이트 stench.

On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt is published next week by Princeton University Press (?6.50).

Interview by Helen Davies