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MegaPrairieDogMaster856
As Frankfurt makes clear, it is impossible for a bullshitter to…
As Frankfurt makes clear, it is impossible for a bullshitter to have the motive of trying trick the
audience into believing her untruthful assertion. This is because the bullshitter does not
believe that what she is asserting is false, and so her assertion is never untruthful. (This is the
liar’s motive – not the bullshitter’s motive.)
However, this does not mean that the bullshitter can’t be motivated by other types of
deception. Even though the bullshitter doesn’t care whether or not what he says is true or
false, the bullshitter very often does care “whether his audience is caused to believe something
true or false” (Cohen 330, my emphasis). Accordingly, the bullshitter can have any of the
following three deceptive motivations (D1-D3):
(D1) The bullshitter might try to deceive the audience by trying to get the audience to believe an
untruthful proposition about the subject other than the asserted proposition.
Consider the following case:
Larry has a drinking problem. He often spends his afternoons at the bar with his best
friend Max. One day, he goes over to Max’s house and drinks all afternoon. When he
gets home in the early evening, his wife confronts him: “Have you been drinking with
Max again?” Larry replies: “Max hasn’t left his house in three days.” Larry is just
making this up; he has no idea whether or not Max has left his house in the last three
days.
Larry isn’t lying because the proposition he is asserting isn’t untruthful. He doesn’t believe that
what he is asserting is false. But Larry also isn’t misleading because the proposition he is
asserting isn’t truthful either. He doesn’t believe that what is asserting is true. Larry has no
idea (and doesn’t care) whether what he is asserting is true or false. So, he is just bullshitting.
Even though Larry is neither lying to nor misleading his wife, he is nonetheless trying to deceive
her. He wants her to conclude – based on his claim that Max hasn’t left his house and her
knowledge that they typically drink at a bar – that he and Max haven’t been drinking.
Be very careful here. The proposition that Larry is asserting is that Max hasn’t left his house in
three days. Again, this proposition is not untruthful. The proposition he is deceptively trying to
get his wife to believe is the very different proposition that he hasn’t been drinking with Max.
This proposition is untruthful. In short, Larry is using bullshit to try to trick his wife into
believing a proposition about Max that is different than the proposition Larry actually asserted.
Go back into the second set of notes on Cohen and re-read the Larry case. I have tried to explain why Larry is bullshitting his wife rather than misleading her when he answers her question with: “Max hasn’t left his house in three days.” How would Larry have to answer his wife in order to make this a case of misleading rather than bullshitting (or lying)? Explain your answer.
