Is There a Case for Bullshit?

In Harry Frankfurt’s famous paper “On Bullshit” he argues that because bullshit is “indifference to the truth,” silence is better than bullshit. Stefano Zorzi challenges this view arguing that bullshit can actually help us reach the truth.

Harry Frankfurt first published “On Bullshit” in 1986, putting forth a theory that claims bullshit is “indifference to the truth.” Because bullshit undermines our ability to tell truth from falsity, according to Frankfurt, silence is better than bullshit. 

Stefano Zorzi challenges this view, arguing that bullshit can help us reach the truth. Zorzi argues that we cannot always know what is truth before we say or discover it—if Galileo had adhered to Frankfurt’s principle of silence over “bullshit”, he would have never found the factual ground to support Copernicus. 

Do you think we should prefer silence to bullshit, or should we allow some bullshit in the quest for higher truth?

Check out the full article here: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/01/18/the-unapologetic-case-for-bullshit/