Bullshit as Counterfeit Evidence

ABSTRACT

Frankfurt's idea that bullshit is “fake,” “counterfeit,” and “phony” has been overshadowed in the later debate by his claim that the bullshitter is indifferent to truth. The former insight deserves to be taken more seriously. I begin by asking whether bullshit is a fake assertion and argue that it isn't. What makes it bullshit, rather, is that the speaker's performance is meant to raise the audience's credence in some proposition h by resembling genuine evidence for h , while simultaneously concealing that it lacks the features of genuine evidence. Bullshit, on this analysis, is best understood as a communicative act that the speaker intends to serve as “counterfeit evidence.” I then use the ideas of relevance theory to distinguish bullshit from plain lying. Since deception is a corollary of counterfeiture, it is also an intrinsic element of bullshit. This helps to contrast the present view with other accounts in the literature.