Chapter 3 "On Bullshit" Matador

Su Youzhen/Text Professor Harry G. Frankfurt, who teaches in the Philosophy Department of Princeton University, has published a small book of only about 60 pages. This book has a very eye-catching title: On Bullshit (Chinese translation).Unexpectedly, this "Philosophical Discourse" became a bestseller and was translated into twenty-five different languages, becoming a phenomenon in the history of publishing. Its philosophical connotation and marketing records are inconsistent with common sense. Its thin body that cannot stand on the bookshelf is more than the best-selling amount it introduces, and its profit is calculated in units of pages. It must have set some kind of unprecedented record.

Although "Bullshit" is used every day, it is a dirty word after all (so when I borrowed this book in the library, I was sensitive to see the malicious smile on the lips of the librarian).At the very least, the word cannot be broadcast on public radio, and if it appears occasionally, it is also stipulated that it must be washed out by artificial beeping sounds. If it is published in newspapers and magazines (such as the "New York Times Weekly" I quoted below), it must It is reprinted as "bull****" (four letters are deleted), and when it is necessary to speak it in spoken language, people who are more refined will say BS.There are two expressions in Chinese that are closest to its meaning, one is "blowing" and the other is "farting".The two have their own advantages in translation. The former coincides with the original text with the meaning of "cow", which can give the translator a surprise, but it is too elegant and does not have the spirit of the latter, which is closer to the original text. Dripping; and unlike the latter, it includes references in the original text to the excretion of waste by the digestive organs.It's a pity that "boasting" and "farting" are both verbs, and they can't fully match the usage of the noun "bull****" (when using bull**** as a verb in English, it must be converted into participle, such as "Are you bull****ing me ?").So when we say a book or a sentence is full of "bull****", we can't say it's full of fart or bragging.To convert it into a noun in Chinese, the literal translation of "bull****" should be "cow dung", but what cow dung refers to in Chinese seems to be another kind of overreaching, but it has nothing to do with verbal disrespect .Perhaps it is the prejudice of different cultures on different animals. The English word "cow dung" seems to be closer to the Chinese word "shit fart".

When considering the proper Chinese translation of this word, I found on the Internet that there is a traditional Chinese translation of this book in Taiwan, which was translated by Mr. Nanfang Shuo, and the title is "Fart!".It really is a joyful translation.But this fiery and very enjoyable dramatic gesture may have sacrificed the ironic mood of the original book's philosophy of being calm and in command.Perhaps it is translated into "On Farting", and the high-browed and imposing word "On" is used together with "Fart", which can better point out the original intention of the original author to analyze the symptoms of fart with a serious philosophical method. The book On Bullshit grew out of an article originally published in Raritan Magazine, published by Rugers University (1986).The main purpose is to explore why today's society is full of insincere nonsense and so-called bullshit like never before.In the article, the author clearly distinguishes between "farting" and "lying" in a philosophical dialectical way. Although a "liar" distorts the truth, he knows what the truth is in his heart when he tells a lie, while a "fart" person is completely indifferent to the truth. They don't care what is true and what is false. The bullshit they send out is all about manipulating the listener or reader and is based on their own interests, be it political power, business profits, or academic status and promotion, so it is not the same as "lying". "Compared to those who fart, those who "fart" are the greater enemies of truth.As for why the phenomenon of bullshit is so prosperous in today's society, Professor Frankfurt blames it on the postmodern theory that emerged at the end of the last century. Postmodernism denies the existence of objective reality and "talks" from its own perspective in a deconstructive way world.In addition, modern society also provides a variety of cultural atmospheres that create bullshit. In the political, social and academic landscape, people are often asked to express their opinions, so no matter whether they have research experience on the topic discussed, they must also interpret it. In order to maintain their self-esteem and status, they must pretend to be authorities, and they will have a big meal, adding a lot of shit that can't be matched with the truth.Following the success of the book On Bullshit, Professor Frankfurt has made persistent efforts and recently published another equally short sister work On Truth (Chinese translation of "On Truth"). All kinds of empty but eloquent rhetoric derived from the theory will be attacked.At the end of October, "New York Times Weekly" had an exclusive interview with him, which was as good as the article. In the interview, Professor Frankfurt answered briefly and sharply, without a word of nonsense. Because it was too exciting, I had to excerpt a lot of the interview content below:

Q: Your book On Bullshit became an unexpected bestseller last year.Answer: What is an accident? Don’t people who buy books know what books they are buying? Question: How many copies did you sell in total? Answer: More than 400,000 copies.It has been translated into twenty-five languages, including Croatian and Korean, which are not European languages. Q: The title of the book is "Sobre Fala Merda" in Portuguese, "Stronzate" in Italian, and "De I'?? Art de Dire des Conneries" in French.Are these your original meanings? A: Many of the languages ​​into which this book has been translated have no equivalents for "bull****", which confuses me very much.

Q: Do you think this book would have sold so well if it had a less compelling title, say, On Lying? A: Of course, the subversive title of the book has something to do with its success.But from the reactions I've gotten, it appears that there are other factors at play.There is clearly a certain hunger for truth in this country.Q: In your new book, you attack academics and their various postmodernist theories.Postmodernism sees all truth as a human construct rather than an independently existing reality. A: I taught at Yale University.Yale was once a center of postmodern literary theory, Derrida was there, Paul de Man was there. The article "On Bullshit" was also written at Yale. A professor of physics told me that it was very appropriate.

Q: Isn't there more bullshit in politics and entertainment than in academia? A: I hope so! Q: What about philosophy where you still teach? A: There's a fair amount of bullshit in philosophy too.Many people are so forced to pretend that they have important theories that they create impenetrable language to hide the meaningless truth in them.Question: What do you think is the necessary condition for pursuing truth? Answer: Discerning truth requires selflessness.You have to put yourself out there in order to discover how things really work, not how things look to you, or how you feel about them, or what you want them to be.

……Q: Let’s talk a little more about your new book.Why is the book so short? - only 101 pages? Answer: Well, On Bullshit is even shorter.I like this.Q: Because short books are less likely to hold college shit? A: I think short books can have a lot of shit, but a long book almost certainly has a lot of shit.