'One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit,' Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener.

More A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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. Digitech Usb Serial Driver there. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us.

In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, 'we have no theory.' Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here.

With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

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 their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. In the press '[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? 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.

Author by: Harry G. Frankfurt Language: en Publisher by: Princeton University Press Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 19 Total Download: 914 File Size: 48,7 Mb Description: A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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.

We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, 'we have no theory.'

Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

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 their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not.

Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. Author by: Gary L. Hardcastle Language: en Publisher by: Open Court Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 28 Total Download: 845 File Size: 48,7 Mb Description: Popular interest in bullshit — and its near relative, truthiness — is at an all-time high, but the subject has a rich philosophical history, with Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Kant all weighing in on the matter. Here, contemporary philosophers reflect on bullshit from epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, historical, and political points of view. Tackling questions including what is bullshit, what does it do, is it a passing fad, and can it ever be eliminated, the book is a guide and resource for the many who find bullshit worth pondering. Author by: Laura Penny Language: en Publisher by: Crown Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 90 Total Download: 776 File Size: 51,9 Mb Description: Every once in a while a truth-telling book appears out of nowhere, a book that crystallizes our darkest suspicions and makes us mad as hell—while we’re laughing like fiends.

A book like this one. Your Call Is Important to Us is a manifesto for anyone who’s sick and tired of the twenty-first century’s tidal wave of bullshit. Taking no prisoners, author Laura Penny dissects—no, disembowels—the culture of globalized, super-sized, consumerized b.s. Dating the renaissance of bullshit to wartime propaganda, Penny skewers the “corporate bafflegab,” scripted, question-proof political events, toxic faux foodstuffs, and miracle pills that clutter our lives. She spares no one and nothing: not Wal-Mart, where “every rinky-dink chunk of mass-produced bric-a-brac is manufactured expressly for you”; not Bush’s White House, with its “wallpaper of phony populist sloganeering”; and not the vast pharmaceutical industry, with its “gateway prescription drugs.” Penny reveals that prisons are the hot new thing in call centers (the federal prison industry bills itself as “the best-kept secret in outsourcing”) and that the Public Relations Society of America has a Code of Ethics Pledge (who knew?). Finally, with devastating precision, she demonstrates how our “all-you-can-eat buffet of phoniness” not only alienates us from each other but degrades public discourse, breeds apathy, and makes us just plain stupid. Your Call Is Important to Us introduces a fearless and utterly disarming new voice in social criticism.

It’s an island of clarity in an ocean of ordure. Laura Penny on Bullshit: There is so much bullshit that one hardly knows where to begin. The platitudinous pabulum that passes for stirring political rhetoric is bullshit.... The committee-crafted persona and the focus-grouped fad and the rule of the polls are straight-up bullshit. The disease hysteria du jour is bullshit, and so is the latest miracle pill. The new product that will change your life is probably just more cheap, plastic bullshit. “Your call is important to us” has been chosen from a very deep reservoir of bullshit phrases for the title of this book because it best exemplifies the properties native to bullshit.

It tries to slather some nice on the result of a simple ratio: your time versus some company’s dough. Like most bullshit, the more times you hear it, the bullshittier it gets. This is why bullshit is best served quickly, with many visuals, in mass quantities, with no questions from the floor. From the Hardcover edition. Author by: John McCormick Language: en Publisher by: Transaction Publishers Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 64 Total Download: 496 File Size: 46,7 Mb Description: As the essays in this book attest, in a time of specialization John McCormick chose diversification, a choice determined by a life spent in many occupations and many countries. After his five years in the U.

Navy in the Second World War, the academy beckoned by way of the G. Bill, graduate training, and a career in teaching. Prosperity in the American university at the time meant setting up as a 'Wordsworth man,' a 'Keats man,' or a 'Dr. Johnson man': all chilling to the author.

He chose self-exile in which he disguised himself as an 'Americanist' saleable in Europe, and lectured happily in comparative studies: literature, history, and philosophy. Thus the broad range of this volume, both in subject matter and in the span of time it covers. The essays are divided into three sections.

First are general and personal essays on a variety of topics, followed by work on individual writers, and third, writings on criticism and theory. A section on Santayana reflects his eight years of research for Santayana's biography. The writings on Spain and toreo (bullfighting) result from another long-held interest, together with the author's attempt to alter some of the romantic nonsense about the running of the bulls in Pamplona, too often the entire substance of what the general public knows about Spain. McCormick has long been convinced that without knowledge of bullfighting, the foreigner cannot comprehend arcane and wonderful aspects of the Spanish character. The coda, 'Another Music,' is an old man's attempt to solve the mysterious algebra of how the world turns now, and how the young appear to the aged.

While the volume is diverse in its range of writers--from Whitman in America to Santayana in Europe, taken as a collectivity, these essays provide a sense of the grandeur as well as the decadent in twentieth century politics and aesthetics alike. Written with the literary taste and political non-conformity that still characterizes McCormick, the volume is a treat for the specialist (perhaps) and for the generalist (certainly). Author by: Jason Holt Language: en Publisher by: John Wiley & Sons Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 93 Total Download: 201 File Size: 42,5 Mb Description: An entertaining and insightful examination of the Emmy-award winning American satirical news show, broadcast on Comedy Central in the US, and (in an edited edition) on More4 in the UK and CNN International around the world. Includes discussion of both The Daily Show and its spin-off show, The Colbert Report Showcases philosophers at their best, discussing truth, knowledge, reality and the American Way Highlights the razor sharp critical skills of Jon Stewart and his colleagues Faces tough and surprisingly funny questions about politics, religion, and power head on. Author by: Harry G.

Frankfurt Language: en Publisher by: Random House Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 33 Total Download: 954 File Size: 53,9 Mb Description: Whatever benefits and rewards it may sometimes be possible to attain by bullshitting, by dissembling, or by sheer mendacity, societies cannot afford to tolerate anyone or anything that fosters a slovenly indifference to the distinction between true and false. In a world of spin, rhetoric, blagging and bullshitting, a basic level of scepticism and the impulse to question first impressions is widely considered a virtue. Blackened Sky Biffy Clyro Rar Files here. Yet the very purpose of such caution - the discernment of truth - has for some time been undermined by a postmodern generation of authors, journalists, historians and philosophers who categorically deny the existence of any exterior, objective truth, elevating instead the impenetrable subjectivity of the individual above all else.

Blending philosophical insight with sheer common sense, Harry Frankfurt's incisive sequel to On Bullshit is a defence, a vindication, and a celebration of Truth. Whether concerning ourselves with work, pleasure, people or poetry, Frankfurt demonstrates that a belief in a basic notion of Truth is essential not just to our everyday involvement with the physical world, but to the concepts of identity, confidence, trust, conviction, society, and communication that endow our lives with meaning. Author by: Gary Sernovitz Language: en Publisher by: Henry Holt and Company Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 42 Total Download: 447 File Size: 47,6 Mb Description: A bold and insightful novel detailing a young Wall Street analyst's fall from grace Chris Kelch is at the top of his game, one of Freshler Feld's rising stars.

At only twenty-eight, he's one of the highest-rated equity research analysts in his sector; last year, he pulled down nearly half a million dollars. His personal life is also on a roll: his girlfriend, the comely Kersten Henry, couldn't be more supportive. Kelch's small-town, single-parent, Midwestern roots seem far behind. But when a thinly veiled profile of Kelch runs in a prominent magazine, things start to go downhill.

Not only does the piece reveal company secrets and cast Freshler Feld in a bad light, it also makes him feel like a dupe: the author tricked him into giving an interview. And it reveals far more about Kelch's conflicted feelings about his past and his job than he has admitted even to himself.

Then a stock Kelch handpicked falters, and things go from bad to worse as he is forced to examine just about every assumption, decision, and mistake he's ever made. With suspense and style, Gary Sernovitz's The Contrarians not only creates one of the most memorable 'money men' in recent American fiction, it also examines, as no novel has done before, the rise-and the seeds of the fall-of late-nineties Wall Street. Author by: David Foster Wallace Language: en Publisher by: Hachette UK Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 54 Total Download: 461 File Size: 47,7 Mb Description: Is John McCain 'For Real?' That's the question David Foster Wallace set out to explore when he first climbed aboard Senator McCain's campaign caravan in February 2000. It was a moment when Mccain was increasingly perceived as a harbinger of change, the anticandidate whose goal was 'to inspire young Americans to devote themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest.' And many young Americans were beginning to take notice.

To get at 'something riveting and unspinnable and true' about John Mccain, Wallace finds he must pierce the smoke screen of spin doctors and media manipulators. And he succeeds-in a characteristically potent blast of journalistic brio that not only captures the lunatic rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign but also delivers a compelling inquiry into John McCain himself: the senator, the POW, the campaign finance reformer, the candidate, the man. Author by: Keith Dromm Language: en Publisher by: Open Court Format Available: PDF, ePub, Mobi Total Read: 53 Total Download: 417 File Size: 48,5 Mb Description: Few novels have had more influence on individuals and literary culture than J.D.

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Published in 1951 and intended by Salinger for adults (early drafts were published in the New Yorker and Colliers), the novel quickly became championed by youth who identified with the awkwardness and alienation of the novel’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

Since then the book and its reclusive author have been fixtures of both popular and literary culture. Catcher is perhaps the only modern novel that is revered equally by the countless Americans whom Holden Caulfield helped through high school and puberty and literary critics (such as the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik who insisted as recently as 2010 that Catcher is a 'perfect' twentieth-century novel). One premise of The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy is that the ease and sincerity with which readers identify with Holden Caulfield rests on Salinger’s attention to the nuances and qualities of experience in the modern world. Coupled with Salinger’s deft subjective, first-person style, Holden comes to seem more real than any fictional character should.

This and other paradoxes raised by the novel are treated by authors who find answers in philosophy, particularly in twentieth-century phenomenology and existentialism--areas of philosophy that share Salinger’s attention to lived, as opposed to theorized, experience. Holden’s preoccupation with “phonies,” along with his constant striving to interpret and judge the motives and beliefs of those around him, also taps into contemporary interest in philosophical theories of justice and Harry Frankfurt’s recently celebrated analysis of 'bullshit.' Per Salinger’s request, Catcher has never been made into a movie. One measure of the devotion and fanatical interest Catcher continues to inspire, however, is speculation in blogs and magazines about whether movie rights may become available in the wake of Salinger’s death in 2010. These articles remain purely hypothetical, but the questions they inspire--Who would direct?

And, especially, Who would star as Holden Caulfield?--are as vivid and real as Holden himself.