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On Truth | 
 enlarge | Author: Harry G. Frankfurt
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $12.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 35404
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 112
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.1 x 4.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 030726422X
Dewey Decimal Number: 121
EAN: 9780307264220
ASIN: 030726422X
Publication Date: October 31, 2006
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Truly dull and uninformative April 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I should have been tipped off the worth of "On Truth" by its small size -- merely 2 disks' worth of audio when even small books use up 6. But size aside, "On Truth" was a rather large waste of time. Harry Frankfurter follows up on his popular "On B.S." with this volume which explores the other side of the coin -- the existence and utility of truth. Frankfurter's main aim seems to be to refute the notion of post-modernists, who hold that truth is unknowable and even non-existent, outside of the mind of individual human beings. But aside from a few swipes at this group, Frankfurter trots out the venerable (yet hoary and impractical) arguments on the value of truth from Aristotle, Spinoza, Montaigne and others. Frankfurter begins with the rather unremarkable position that truth and falsity underlie the sciences and societal stability. Who, after all would wants to cross a bridge built by an engineer not interested in the truth of mathematics and the reliability of materials strength tables? Who would want to live in a society in which the truth of election results cannot be determined objectively?
But while these simpleminded and self-evident uses of truth are very nice in the abstract world of philosophy, truth is more difficult to find (and far less useful) in practice. Opinion, which Frankfurter sees as ideally based on facts, takes on strange colorations when filtered through human brains with various capacities for rationality. Frankfurter does not consider how it can be that even two people dedicated to truth-telling can come to different conclusions about a topic, based perhaps on their own histories and unknown biases. Neither does he consider social lying, in which truth that hurts is avoided. He doesn't even deal with the standard example where telling the truth would be immoral -- as when it would led to the death or injury of an innocent party. The closest that Frankfurter comes to a nuanced view of truth is in his exploration of Shakespeare's sonnet 138, in which two lovers knowingly lie to each other, thereby achieving a higher and perhaps more realistic appraisal of one another.
"On Truth" is dull, incomplete and ponderously written. It includes no examples to illuminate its dense and pompous prose. It does not take into account the real-life difficulties of determining the truth. Nor does it help the reader recognize personal biases that make knowing the truth difficult.
In short, "On Truth" is a bore, a bother and bad investment of time and money. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
 Eh July 18, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Dull but Relevant and Helpful June 12, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review 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
 Pithy and Insightful May 31, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
Better than "On Bull****", but... March 22, 2007
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
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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