On Bullshit: Anniversary Edition

by Harry G. Frankfurt Narrated by Not Yet Available

Overview

Over one million copies sold worldwide
The international and #1 New York Times bestseller
The anniversary edition of the acclaimed book that reveals why bullshit is more dangerous than lying

One of the most prominent features of our world is that there is so much bullshit. Yet we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, how it's different from lying, what purposes it serves, and what it means. In his acclaimed bestseller On Bullshit, which was featured on The Daily Show and 60 Minutes, Harry Frankfurt, who was one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, explores one of the most serious problems of our politics and our world. This twentieth anniversary edition features a postscript in which Frankfurt emphasizes that “indifference to the truth is extremely dangerous.”

With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do-that is, by deliberately making false claims about what's true. Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Although bullshit can take innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the bullshitter's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying doesn't. Liars at least acknowledge that the truth matters. Because of this, Frankfurt says, “bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”

Remarkably prescient and insightful, On Bullshit is a small book that explains a great deal about our time.

Editorial Reviews

Washington Post

"A slim treatise on the pervasive, willful and devilish art of avoiding the truth."

Financial Times

"[Frankfurt] attracted public attention on a scale unimaginable to most academic philosophers. The reason for his appearances on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, CBS’s 60 Minutes and other US network TV programmes was On Bullshit, his brief but bestselling disquisition on what he described as ‘one of the most salient features of our culture.'"

From the Publisher

"Harry G. Frankfurt [was] the world’s foremost authority on bullshit...In our current political climate, [his] words sound prescient to the point of redundancy."—-Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Brilliant."—-Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post

"Seminal."—-Roger Cohen, New York Times

"Immediately, I must say: read it. Beautifully written, lucid, ironic and profound, it is a model of what philosophy can and should do. It is a small and highly provocative masterpiece, and I really don't think I am bullshitting you here."—-Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

"Frankfurt’s account of bullshit is doubly remarkable. Not only does he define it in a novel way that distinguishes it from lying; he also uses this definition to establish a powerful claim: ‘Bullshit is a greater enemy of truth than lies are.’"—-Jim Holt, The New Yorker

"On Bullshit taxonomises an entire style of government."—-Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian

"[On Bullshit] remains unnervingly relevant. . . . Frankfurt described the bullshitter as ‘he’ rather than ‘she’ or ‘they.' But now . . . we may have to refer to the bullshitter as ‘it’—because a new generation of chatbots are poised to generate bullshit on an undreamt-of scale."—-Tim Harford, Financial Times

"A tightly focused, telling critique of a political and cultural climate that seems positively humid with mendacity, obfuscation, evasion and illusion."—-Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

"Frankfurt famously argued that bullshit is speech that is typically persuasive but is detached from a concern with the truth. Large language models are the ultimate bullshitters because they are designed to be plausible (and therefore convincing) with no regard for the truth. . . . And bullshit is dangerous, warned Frankfurt."—-Carissa Véliz, Time

"The droll prose is a tasty treat."—-Richard Pachter, Boston Globe

"[Frankfurt] tries, with the help of Wittgenstein, Pound, St. Augustine and the spy novelist Eric Ambler, among others, to ask some of the preliminary questions—to define the nature of a thing recognized by all but understood by none. . . . What is bullshit, after all? Mr. Frankfurt points out it is neither fish nor fowl. Those who produce it certainly aren't honest, but neither are they liars, given that the liar and the honest man are linked in their common, if not identical, regard for the truth."—-Peter Edidin, New York Times

Well Read Naturalist

"it came to me as welcome news indeed that Princeton University Press is publishing a twentieth anniversary edition...On Bullshit, copies of which I dearly hope will find their ways into the hands of those still keeping their heads above the steaming piles rising all around us in order to provide them an eloquent, concise, and effective explanation of what bullshit is and how it works."

The Two Matts

"It seemed to me that it was such a great thing that Princeton University Press is putting it [On Bullshit] out again. . . . Everyone should get a copy."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940195600013
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	09/19/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged