Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

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."

http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7929.html
this such a little book, 4” X 6” and about a ¼” thick. And a bitch to read. My college sophomore education just don’t give me the skills I need to make much headway.

But I am going to keep trying cause I just realized that is what we have in the oval office. A bullshit artist.

saw him on i thinbk 60 minutes. the only reason people are making a big deal bout the book is 'cause it titilates squares to think that an ivy league prof would dare to use a foul word like b.s.

of course, the premise that no theories of bullshit exist is categorically false. the first book on the subject was Plato's Gorgias, a dialogue on, inter alia, the illogical but persuasive rhetoric of the sophists and professional oratotrs in ancient Greece.

and there are quite sophisticated theories of rhetoric and propaganda and the media that have been developed in the 20th century, by Chomsky and others. although i've not read Harry Frankfurt, i doubt his reflections are that revolutionary.

http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/video/frankfurt/
video files of the dear professor.

Plato's Gorgias, a dialogue on, inter alia, the illogical but persuasive rhetoric of the sophists and professional oratotrs in ancient Greece.

can i find this in "philosophy for dummies?"

what exactly he is talking about is as an analytic philosopher is clarity of certain concepts, this one, bullshit, being one that poses "acertain danger to civilization and culture" short video #1, hey, i like the short sound bites! is he bullshitting?
depends upon how you define the term. I think that he may be using the term as a manipulative maneuvering, where as thare were the old dorm "bullshit sesshions" that were freefl;owing hanging out rap harangues, usually punctuated with laughter and so forth.

He says that bullshit is a lack of concern for the truth.

A: "You wouldn't shit me, man?"

B: "No, you're my favorite turd!"

A: "You're my favorite asshole!"

http://www.thecoolestpageever.com/Page14.html

if you read a book called Philosophy for Dummies you are beyond help. i don't care what is inside it.

Plato is not difficult to read -- to understand, well, that varies -- but most adequately done translations are quite readable. when it comes to philosophy, avoid hack academic commentaries; read the originals, if possible.

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/gorgias.html

ok i will read my homework

later gator, toodle doo kangaroo

duh, me beyond help

excuse me.


I'll be loitering in the Agora.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora

my acerbic comments were not directed at you.

more, at the publishers of that series. i cannot understnad how people could respond so well to a book series (both the for dummies and the idiot's guides) that simulataneously insults its reader and expect the consumer to buy it. and yet it works!! how?

well, for instance I have the book, Spanish for Dummies
or is it fer Idiotas,

an excellent book

also I have the book GRE for Dummies
again excelente,

so no I don't find the title to be insulting, rather humerous.

the quality issue is another matter, perhaps even with some essential reading lists included, like who was Plato, some of his creative emphasis, left to the Idiots to pursue further,

not being especially erudite, I mean, like Ken Rexroth, man, self-educated and voracious. you gotta go to the agora without the phobia.....

the in 90 minutes series is pretty good for introductory texts, includes biography and philosophic summaries.

alas, alak, aloha
a summary life
with snitches of gory details

dubya at the helicopter saying
"i know this was an enormous storm."

San Antoini Express news today or yesterday, the real reason for our invasion of Iraq. "To keep those oil fields from falling into the hands of the terrorists." paraphrase from memory.

On bullshit mine. I was coming back to Zlatko on a post talking about anti cementism. I know I was not quoting him accurately, but either out of lazinest or a desire to make a point I twisted his words. I knew what I was doing, but I did it anyway. I know I am no saint, a bullshiter too. But I knew it. Does Bush know it or is he a robot. A double thinker who is not aware of his own lies?

So the San Antoine Express is saying that we invaded Iraq to keep the oil fields out of the hands of the terrorists?

Wacko, man.

Dubya this morning, America, said that we would rescue Misippi and New Awlranz and fight the war on terror at the same time, yowsa.

The war on terror.
I really think he believes it. Worrisome at least.

Country Joe has a new song out, "Cakewalk to Baghdad" real audio, man.now that's some bulllshit expozed.

George Carlin had a bit about BULLSHIT and its pervasiveness in contempoary culture, economy, politics. probably a decade before Professor Frankfurt's little book.

another illustration of the slightly exagerrated proposition expressed by Rage Against The Machine:
"The classroom's the last room to get the truth."

I've thought about doing the teaching bit eventually.

I have a form at home to fill out and send into the supt of schools as registration as a speaker for the county schools, part of the effort to get Vets for Peace and other anti-establishment figures into the classrooms. So far tyhey are refusenikking.

Many years ago in college...philosophy 101...the proff is handing back essays...offers me mine I see the big red A on it ...he peers over his glasses and says...Don't ever bullshit me again...