It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.
Harry FrankfurtRead
Recognizing truth requires selflessness. You have to leave yourself out of it so you can find out the way things are in themselves, not the way they look to you or how you feel about them or how you would like them to be.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding truth demands an unbiased perspective, free from personal feelings or desires.
In this quote, Harry Frankfurt emphasizes the importance of recognizing truth through a lens of selflessness. He argues that to discover the true nature of things, one must set aside personal biases and emotions, focusing instead on the objective reality rather than subjective interpretations or wishful thinking. This philosophical stance invites deeper contemplation about the nature of perception and the challenges of achieving genuine understanding.
Themes
TruthSelflessnessPerceptionUnderstandingObjectivity
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate, you might use this quote to encourage others to consider objective facts over personal opinions.
More from Harry Frankfurt
All quotes →Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstance require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.
Harry FrankfurtRead
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.
Harry FrankfurtRead
The fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him . . . He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.
Harry FrankfurtRead
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