Princeton Professor

On Bullshit. Princeton Professor Publishes Lowdown Analysis
By Tom Attea

While browsing the philosophy section in a quaint and generally inaccessible bookshop, we came across a miniature tome we might have missed in conning the long shelves of a megastore. Noting the title on the spine and considering its offbeat nature with curiosity, we reached to indulge it with a cursory examination.

A closer view confirmed the title is indeed On Bullshit and informed us that the author is one Harry G. Frankfurt. We opened the book to inspect it further and were surprised to discover its credentials. The publisher is The Princeton University Press, and the author is a “renowned moral philosopher” who “is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University.” We are also told that the “essay was originally published in the Raritan Review.”

Since we also noted the book has a copyright date of 2005, we thought we might be a bit late in taking note of it but decided our readers may, like us, have missed the wide proliferation of its original notices. We saw that it was dedicated as follows: “To Joan, truly.” We are unaware of what exactly is implied as the appropriate word to follow “truly.”

We will now, for purposes of this notice, quote briefly from the beginning: