Bullshit: Not all untruths are lies

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  • 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
    • 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

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