The Philosophy of Research - Writing about Bulls**t

"On Bullshit," written by Princeton University scholar Harry Frankfurt (download here) is one of the more popular modern pieces of modern philosophy. In this essay the reader is taken through a thorough analysis of a word that is apparently misused on a regular basis - according to the writer, "we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what function it serves."

"On Bullshit" is actually a rather interesting read and I suggest that everyone who has a spare moment to spend a few minutes to check it out.

My introduction to the essay occurred, believe it or not, in my Philosophy in Research class, in we are being taught the variety of things that we no nothing about anything. We are asking heavy questions such as following (courtesy of Professor John Artz):

Your friend lends you a laptop and during the year that you borrowed it, the wireless card fails, the hard drive needs replacing, and eventually everything needs to be replaced. For reasons unknown to anybody, you save all of the parts that you replaced and can assemble a second laptop.

Your friend returns and you tell her the story about the failed parts and subsequent repairs. You then ask her which laptop she wants. "I want the one I lent you," she says.

"Well, then take this laptop that I made you out of all of the failed components of the laptop that you lent me" you offer.

But it isn't the same laptop" your friend replies. "That laptop was working:

"OK," you capitulate, "take the other laptop"

"But that's not the laptop that I lent you" she asserts. "It is a collection of new parts."

What do you?

This, and other connundrums are discussed in our Philosophy of research class. We are learning how to analyze concepts "such as Bullshit," construct logical arguments, and identify research topics that make sense. Class is fun, but the homework can be mind-boggling (I say this as I read the 200 pages of assigned reading for the third time, after which I need to do a presentation on the contents). We are supposed to leave this class with a better ability to do research and the jury is still out regarding whether it will achieve its goal.

If nothing else, we can leave the class with a firmer understanding of what Bullshit means.