ABSTRACT
In January 2005, one of the premier scholarly publishers in the English language, Princeton University Press, published a brief, eighty-page pamphlet in book form, called On Bullshit by a well-respected philosopher, Harry G. Frankfurt, who had written widely on basic themes in epistemology. The book in question, On Bullshit, received a wide range of critical responses in reputable publications, ranging from "defining the essence of postindustrial society", and "the humor and the naughtiness lie in the contrast between the highfaltin' and the indelicate". What brought back such recollections of this recent success in university press publishing is less Professor Frankfurt's monograph, than the inevitable effort at imitation, not so much of the contents of that volume as the shock value of obscene language as a measure of the courage of the cowardly. The use of coarse language introduces serious issues in ethical theory, which is assuredly a strong part of the history of philosophy.
