bullshit
TagAI, Teaching, and “Our Willingness to Give Bullshit a Pass”
There has been a fair amount of concern over the threats that ChatGPT and AI in general pose to teaching. But perhaps there’s an upside? (more…)
Potemkin U. (guest post)
“We are mired in inevitably betraying and ignoble practices, obliged to pay mindless obeisance to useless cant or to perform pantomimes of actually important values made ridiculous through endless, unanswered repetition…”
An Empirical Study of Bullshitters
“Bullshitters. Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives?” is the title of a new study conducted by John Jerrim (UCL), Phil Parker (Australian Catholic University), and Nikki Shure (UCL and IZA – Institute of Labor Economics).
Bullshit Jobs in Higher Ed
“The degree to which those involved in teaching and academic management spend more and more of their time involved in tasks which they secretly—or not so secretly—believe to be entirely pointless” is a hot topic on academic social media this week, owing to an article about it by anthropologist David Graeber (LSE) in The Chronicle of Higher Education. (more…)..
A Whole Course About Combating Bullshit
The world is awash in bullshit. Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. So-called higher education often rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture has elevated bullshit to high art. Advertisers wink conspiratorially and invite us to join them in seeing through all the bullshit, then take advantage of our lowered g..
Beyond Bullshit
The following is an excerpt from an essay by Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, Professor of Political Science, and associate member of the Department of Philosophy at McGill University, published by the Niskanen Center. (more…)
New (?) Corollary of Frankfurt’s Conception of Bullshit
“The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.” (Seen here but apparently owed to Alberto Brandolini.)
Despite including the bullshit phrase, “order of magnitude,” this is useful to keep in mind, especially as one travels the internet, for both the folks who see bullshit and are tempted to respond to it, and f..