The Truth About Bullshit: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary Edition of On Bullshit with Pamela Hieronymi

Jun 23, 2025

Pamela Hieronymi, a Professor of Philosophy at UCLA and an advisor on *The Good Place*, dives deep into the impact of Harry Frankfurt’s *On Bullshit*. She discusses the vital distinction between bullshit and lying, explaining how the former disregards truth entirely while the latter conceals it. The conversation also highlights the book’s prescient relevance to today’s media landscape, the role of humor in philosophical discourse, and the dynamics of responsibility in communication. Hieronymi's insights offer a fresh lens on the pervasive nature of deception in modern society.

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ANECDOTE

From Student To Friend

Pamela first met Harry as an undergraduate in a small seminar and later had him as second reader for her senior thesis.
They became friends after he moved to Los Angeles and she shifted from calling him Professor Frankfurt to Harry.

INSIGHT

Bullshit Versus Lying

Frankfurt distinguishes liars from bullshitters by the bullshitter's indifference to truth rather than deliberate falsehood.
This indifference makes bullshitting more corrosive because it disregards truth entirely.

INSIGHT

Why Bullshit Is More Dangerous

Frankfurt views the bullshitter as more dangerous than the liar because they lack concern for truth.
Pamela emphasizes that caring about truth is essential for human society.

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Today I’m thrilled to launch a brand new series for the Princeton UP Ideas Podcast. 20 years ago, Princeton University Press published a short volume with an excellent title: On Bullshit (Princeton UP, 2025). Written by philosopher Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit was adapted from an essay that explored the meaning, uses, and consequences of bullshit.

At just 80 pages, On Bullshit became a favorite of readers, selling over 1 million copies and spending 27 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It’s not often that a work of philosophy breaks through to the mainstream, but readers of On Bullshit quickly discover why. Harry’s meditation on the meaning of bullshit can be read in one sitting, but the ideas have staying power. After you read Harry’s book, you start to see bullshit everywhere and recognize it’s uniquely pernicious effects on whatever’s left of the public square. Harry wrote his book long before modern social media and AI-generated slop. He was unbelievably prescient, making On Bullshit required reading for today. Harry sadly passed in 2023 at 94 years old, but his ideas live on. In this series, we’ll speak with scholars whose lives and work have been influenced by Harry and his seminal book.

To kick things off, I’ll be speaking with Pamela Hieronymi, one of Harry’s former students. Pamela is Professor of Philosophy at UCLA and a leading scholar in the field of moral philosophy. Like Harry, her work has resonated outside the academy. She served as an advisor on the sitcom, The Good Place, which brought philosophical concepts like the trolley problem to a mainstream audience. For the first episode in the series, Pamela will introduce readers to both the book and the man who wrote it. In subsequent episodes, I’ll speak with other scholars who explore Harry’s notion of bullshit in politics, science, and more. If you haven’t read On Bullshit, you should preorder the anniversary edition, which is set to release on August 5th. Now, let’s have ourselves a bull session.

Pamela Hieronymi is Professor of Philosophy at UCLA. Watch her lecture on the blame game.

Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network.

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