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Harry G. Frankfut - On Bullshit

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  kpr37  •  7 years ago  •  15 comments

Harry G. Frankfut - On Bullshit

Philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt, explorers bullshit, he defines modern bullshit as attempts to persuade by disregarding reality, logic, and reason.

 

Full essay "On Bullshit" https://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/bullshit/pdf/on-bullshit.pdfone

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern , or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.

 


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kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37    7 years ago

Just sayin

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37    7 years ago

An example of bullshit.

 

College science classes are hostile to women and minorities because they use the scientific method, which assumes people can find reliable truths about the natural world through careful and sustained experimentation, concludes a recent dissertation by a doctoral candidate at the University of North Dakota.

 

Laura Parson, a student in the university’s education department , reviewed eight science class syllabi at a “Midwest public university” and said she discovered in them a hidden hostility to women and minorities:

 

Initial exploration of the STEM syllabi in this study did not reveal overt references to gender, such as through the use of gendered pronouns. However, upon deeper review, language used in the syllabi reflects institutionalized STEM teaching practices and views about knowledge that are inherently discriminatory to women and minorities by promoting a view of knowledge as static and unchanging, a view of teaching that promotes the idea of a passive student, and by promoting a chilly climate that marginalizes women.

 

Even though the course syllabi contained no “gendered assumptions” about students or other overtly discriminatory implications, Parson writes, they display prejudice against women and minorities because they refuse to entertain the possibility that “scientific knowledge is subjective.”

 

Women Are Too Stupid to Use Logic

 

Throughout her dissertation, Parson assumes and asserts that women and minorities are uniquely challenged by the idea that science can provide objective information about the natural world. This is an unfair assumption, she says, because the concept of objectivity is too hard for women and minorities to understand. “[N]otions of absolute truth and a single reality” are “masculine,” she says, referring to poststructuralist feminist theory.

 

Instead of promoting the idea that knowledge is constructed by the student and dynamic, subject to change as it would in a more feminist view of knowledge, the syllabi reinforce the larger male-dominant view of knowledge as one that students acquire and use make [sic] the correct decision.

So, in other words, using logic and the scientific method are inherently “male” ways of knowing that women and minorities cannot employ.

 

"Bullshit"

 

 
 
 
321steve - realistically thinkin or Duu
Sophomore Guide
link   321steve - realistically thinkin or Duu     7 years ago

In Trump’s case, it’s that the man who knew how to get famous by courting controversy and even scandal can’t seem to stop himself even when it’s hurting him, trump is the biggest manipulator of reality I have ever heard.

  

 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   JohnRussell    7 years ago

Do we need someone to explain what bullshit is in order to know that it is bullshit to say that women and minorities can't think like scientists?

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
link   Perrie Halpern R.A.    7 years ago

MY daughters are both in STEM fields and compete directly with men and have never complained about their text books.. so yes, this is utter BS.. 

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37  replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A.   7 years ago

MY daughters are both in STEM fields

They must be twice as smart as everyone else, to fight through the CIC gendered, toxic masculinity embedded within the fabric of the patriarchal structure of the Sciences.thumbs up

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
link   Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  kpr37   7 years ago

I have to say (with a mother's pride), that they are very smart (which also meant that they had a full ride at Hopkins). One is going for a MD/PhD in Neurology (a very long road) and the other is going for a PHD in Neuropsychology specializing in the study of Autism.. 

They would be a delight, if they weren't such know it alls, LOL. 

btw.. nice to see you again, old friend. I hope you remember me back from the good old days.

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37  replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A.   7 years ago

I hope you remember me back from the good old days.

Yes, thank you.

Is the site having a problem with email? I don't get comment notifications anymore.

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
link   Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  kpr37   7 years ago

I'll check into that. Thanks for letting me know.

 
 
 
user image
Freshman Silent
link     replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A.   7 years ago

08/18/17 01:05:06AM @perrie-halpern:

 Is a little chastising, in order?

 

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
link   Krishna  replied to  kpr37   7 years ago

They must be twice as smart as everyone else,

They are.

They went to Johns Hopkins-- on full scholarship!

I may have mentioned here that I'm interested in the MBTI psychological system.. It turned out in a phone conversation I had with with Perrie I found out one of them was also interested in that. So Perrie put her on the line--what a brilliant mind!

 
 
 
Enoch
Masters Quiet
link   Enoch    7 years ago

Dear Friend KPR37: I heard a lecture from Prof. Frankfort at Princeton University when I was there doing consulting work for another graduate department at that University.

He is indeed a great thinker.

It was a pleasure to listen and learn from him.

Thanks for sharing this.

His book on the topic is a fascinating read.

Peace and Abundant Blessings.

Enoch.

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37  replied to  Enoch   7 years ago

 

It was a pleasure to listen and learn from him.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

Yes, I agree. I'm not real political, and with all activity the past few days I thought this was a needed seed. For everyone. We can not let bullshit take over if we are to ever have meaningful conversations, meant to resolve issues

 

 
 
 
sixpick
Professor Quiet
link   sixpick    7 years ago

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
link   Krishna  replied to  sixpick   7 years ago

Classic!

Funny-- but all too true.

Its gotten to the point that I'm not even bothered so much by bullshitters anymore-- at least the ones who admit they are bullshitting. 

But what really irks me is people who are totally full of shit-- and actually try to pretend they're not...

(Don't they know the old saying: You can't bullshit a bullshitter!)

 

 
 

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