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The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays
Book by Black, Max
- GenresPhilosophy
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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October 4, 2022
I found a copy of this after I started reading Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" and he alluded to the title essay here, and I thought, "ope, better read that first." It looked like a promising collection of essays on accessible topics by a rigorous philosopher, so I thought it might be a good read overall. Unfortunately I just found it a slog through goopy academese in service of disappointingly trite and shallow conclusions. Although not a card-carrying member of the J.L. Austin School of Ordinary Language Spelunking, Black does like to keep common or garden variety uses of expressions always in view. I have no objection to that, but in one or two places he actually chooses as a launching-off point the valedictorian cliché "Webster's Dictionary defines X as...". Come ON. Onward and upward, back to Frankfurt...
Displaying 1 of 1 review