On Bullshit Review

Disclaimer: if you’re reading this review, you are probably interested enough in On Bullshit that you should just read it. It’s not very long. It will barely take any longer than reading this review.

As Harry Frankfurt is quick to point out, our culture is full of bullshit. And while he claims “everyone knows this,” he has a problem with the fact that no one has taken the time to really analyze what bullshit is, or what it says about our culture. Hence, the book On Bullshit, in which Frankfurt tries to “begin the development of a theoretical understanding of bullshit.” Frankfurt spends the rest of the book trying to define bullshit; and while this is successful, he does not spend much time at all discussing what this means about our culture, which becomes On Bullshit’s greatest flaw.

Throughout On Bullshit, Frankfurt thoroughly analyzes bullshit to try to come up with a useful definition. Through the use of examples, some theoretical, and others from historical works, as well as analysis of other authors’ attempts to tackle similar subjects, he is able to create a suitable definition. He is able to pin down the one key feature that makes something bullshit: no concern with the truth whatsoever. He says that not caring about what is true and what is not is the defining feature of bullshit. Someone who is telling a lie cares about the truth. They are deliberately trying to hide it. By contrast, the person who bullshits does not care about whether what they say is the truth or not; they are just bullshitting. Frankfurt does a very good job at explaining this conclusion and leading the reader to arrive at the same one.

Unfortunately, once this happens, the reader will arrive at the ultimate disappointment: the book ends. It contains no serious discussion of what his definition means in the grand scheme of things. Frankfurt barely attempts to address this meaning, which is what could be the incredibly compelling part of the analysis. It is tragic that the book ends so quickly without diving into the interesting discussion that it could have. Really, all that can be gained from this is that Frankfurt thinks that our culture is one in which we do not care about the truth, as can be seen by his definition and saying that bullshit is so widespread. Other than that, there is really nothing else the reader can get from On Bullshit about what the author thinks bullshit means to society. He provides examples of when people are likely to use bullshit, such as when they talk about subjects that they are not knowledgeable on, or when one feels like they have to have an opinion on everything, but he doesn’t say what this means. Frankfurt is good at defining, but not at showing the definition’s significance. This leaves the reader with what really feels like an incomplete work since it does not ever arrive at the true discussion that the entire book seems to be building up to.

I wish that I could completely recommend On Bullshit. This is probably not a book that one should spend any money on; but if one happens to find themselves alone with half an hour to spare and a copy of On Bullshit, then it is probably worth the read. It is not a painful read, just a book that is full of ‘could have been,’ but, as with all works that can be described like this, just isn’t. While Frankfurt succeeds at providing a convincing definition of what bullshit is, he leaves it at that. Thus, the book that could have been an excellent discussion of culture if it had addressed ramifications of having so much bullshit becomes little more than a belabored dictionary entry.