Bullshit: Not all untruths are lies
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 29-10-17 16:15
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- Bullshit: Not all untruths are lies
- When sources are incorrect?
- Accidental mistakes
- Intentional deceit
- Lack of concern with the truth
- Bullshit
- Harry Frankfurt
- "[It is a] lack of connection to a concern with truth - this indifference to how things really are - that I regard as the essence of bullshit"
- Contrasts bullshit with lying
- "Both in lying and in telling the truth, people are guided by their beliefs concerning the way things are"
- "[The bullshitter] does not reject the authority of truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all".
- What is a lie?
- 1. A false statement
- 2. Intention to deceive
- Does the liar care about the truth?
- The liar wants to prevent you from believing true thing
- In contrast, bullshitter doesn't care about the truth
- When someone makes a statement, it is usually offered as a contribution to an inquiry
- If someone is lying, then their contribution takes an inquiry further from the truth
- Someone is bullshitting if and only if they do not care whether or not their statement gets the inquiry closer to the truth
- When someone is bullshitting, they do not care if they bring an enquiry closer to, or further from, the truth
- Don Fallis
- 'My suggestion is that Frankfurt should say that an assertion is bullshit if the speaker lacks a concern for the inquiry getting to the truth'
- Does the bullshitter care about anything?
- In some cases, yes
- e.g. a student in an exam with no idea of a real answer
- In some cases, yes
- Fake News
- Deliberate misinformation or hoaxes
- Spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media
- What can we do to counter a post-truth world?
- Consider the social context
- Check the facts
- Check your biases
- Think carefully about what you share on social media or in conversations and how you represent it
- Be epistemically responsible
- When sources are incorrect?
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