Pithy and Insightful | On Truth | Harry G. Frankfurt

Dull but Relevant and Helpful | On Truth | Harry G. Frankfurt

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	• On Truth Harry G. Frankfurt Knopf, 2006 - 112 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I was pretty pumped for this, but found it unnecessarily difficult to get through, and couldn't really enjoy the reading experience. I know philosophy isn't supposed to be easy, but I felt like Frankfurt's writing took the fun out of critical thinking which I usually love. I'm sure philosophy majors and others with lots of experience with these kinds of texts would appreciate it more, but for those, like me, who are just trying to get our hands on interesting and thought provoking reading materials, look elsewhere.

Pithy and Insightful

This book simply gets right to the point. Our society, which values the useful so much, needs to look as well at the underlying affirmation of the true which follows from these values. This succinct little treatise makes the reasons for this lucid. The author maintains a pleasant balance of accessibility and depth throughout. An inexpensive addition that belongs on both the working and thinking man's bookshelf.

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Dull but Relevant and Helpful

I listened to the audiobook version of On Truth and was not captivated by the writing. I found it dry and not very stimulating. There are few illustrations, anecdotes or stories. The writing about truth is to the point and both philosophical and practical.

Frankfurt emphasizes the harm and effects that lies have on the liar and the victim. He also emphasizes the importance of truth to society, culture and the workplace.

This is a short book, so it is not much of an investment of time or energy and does serve to underscore the evidence and significance of truth.Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays

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Better than "On Bull****", but...

Frankfort's musings on the nature of bull**** (On Bull****) led him - how could they not? - to muse on the nature of truth (On Truth). Frankfort's musings on the nature of truth inspired him - considering the "surprise run-away success" of On Bull****, how could they not? - to pen a companion volume, one that is a bit fatter than its predecessor and only a trifle more interesting. The result: a decent first foray - for would-be first-forayers - into some topics that have worried generations of ethically- and metaphysically-minded thinkers. For old-hand worriers of this sort, however, OT offers little to instruct or inspire. To the extent that OT, like OB, is pitched (the former, less cynically) to a popular readership, Frankfurt's effort to (p)reach outside the academy merits credit. Little else about OT (or OB) does.

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Having outlined a theory of bullshit and falsehood, Harry G. Frankfurt turns to what lies beyond them: the truth, a concept not as obvious as some might expect.

Our culture's devotion to bullshit may seem much stronger than our apparently halfhearted attachment to truth. Some people (professional thinkers) won't even acknowledge "true" and "false" as meaningful categories, and even those who claim to love truth cause the rest of us to wonder whether they, too, aren't simply full of it. Practically speaking, many of us deploy the truth only when absolutely necessary, often finding alternatives to be more saleable, and yet somehow civilization seems to be muddling along. But where are we headed? Is our fast and easy way with the facts actually crippling us? Or is it "all good"? Really, what's the use of truth, anyway?

With the same leavening wit and commonsense wisdom that animates his pathbreaking work On Bullshit, Frankfurt encourages us to take another look at the truth: there may be something there that is perhaps too plain to notice but for which we have a mostly unacknowledged yet deep-seated passion. His book will have sentient beings across America asking, "The truth?why didn't I think of that?"

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