ABSTRACT
Drawing on the study of India for illustrations, this chapter investigates the relations between knowledge, truth and bullshit (used as a technical philosophical term). It first delves into the famous philosophical issue known as the Gettier problem, which is believed to have refuted the notion of knowledge as justified true belief. An analysis of this ‘problem’ and its typical examples brings to the surface other issues regarding the relationship between knowledge, ignorance, bullshit and truth. Truths (or facts) can support – and function as evidence for – what simply cannot be knowledge but is ignorance instead. To illustrate this problem, the chapter turns to some examples from Indology. It concludes that the relationship between Indology and the social sciences is a damaging one. Indologists put across outlandish claims regarding a culture about which they are ignorant. Contemporary social scientists draw upon these claims to put across equally flawed ideas about human cultures and societies, ignoring that the Indological accounts rely on discredited theories that embody ignorance. Thus, the chapter shows how, in the case of the study of Indian culture and society, bullshit is generated, sustained and sold as knowledge.
