[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-151089-en":3,"doc-seo-151089-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},151089,1099514068365,"Aurelia","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/10000253d8d9f28188e?_k=1776742907772140068",2,"Literature","Argumentative Bullshit - A Speech-Act Account of Arguments Without Supporting Relation","Harry Frankfurt characterizes bullshit as assertions made without concern for truth. This work extends the idea beyond isolated statements to show how whole arguments can also be bullshit. It introduces argumentative bullshit as the production of an argument without regard for the supporting relation between reasons and claim. By generalizing a speech-acts perspective from bullshit assertions to bullshit arguments, the analysis clarifies a deeper perversion of argumentative standards and the difficulty of countering such moves.","Argumentative bullshit  \nAbstract: Harry Frankfurt characterised bullshit as assertions that are made without a concern for truth. Assertions, however, are not the only type of speech act that can be bullshit. Here, I propose the concept of argumentative bullshit and show how a speech acts account of bullshit assertions can be generalised to bullshit arguments. Argumentative bullshit, in this account, would be the production of an argument without a concern for the supporting relation between reasons and claim.  \nKeywords: assertion, reasons, speech acts, supporting relation, truth.  \n1. Introduction  \nIt is often pointed out that there are a lot of bad arguments out there. 1 People frequently assess opinions on the basis of irrelevant characteristics of the person who express them, draw strong conclusions from insufficient sets of data, and distort the meaning of those standpoints with which they disagree, among many other argumentative blunders and tricks. In this article, I am not interested in these garden-variety cases of bad argumentation. Rather, I would like to focus on a special case of bad argumentative performance, one that does not merely involve flawed arguments. The phenomenon that I will discuss here reveals a deeper flaw—or, rather, a deeper perversion of argumentative standards.  \nThe main difference between bad arguments and the kind of cases that I have in mind is, I believe, the following. In the face of a bad argument, it is generally appropriate to use acounterargument to point out the flaws of the argument. Even if the arguer is so unskilled or obstinate that nothing will convince her that her argument is flawed, it makes sense in the context to expose those flaws. The reason is that the arguer is at least trying to put forward a good argument. She sincerely believes that her argument is good and should convince us—even if she is wrong. Her efforts may be minimum, she may have lazily satisfied herself with the first, manifestly inadequate argument that came to her mind, but she is genuinely presenting a reason in support of a claim.  \nConsider the following example from the popular TV series The Simpsons.2 A bear is spotted roaming the streets ofthe small town of Springfield—an unprecedented event. Having received numerous complaints from frightened townspeople, the mayor decides to create a“bear patrol.” Then, the following dialogue ensues between two of the protagonists of the series, Homer and his daughter, Lisa:  \n1 In this paper, I will use the qualifiers “bad” and “good” as general terms that characterise the quality of arguments, without committing myself to any specific view about the criteria of a good argument. For my purposes, it is immaterial whether the quality of arguments is conceptualised in terms of the acceptabilityrelevance-sufficiency criteria (Johnson and Blair 1994), of argumentation schemes correctly applied in a certain type of dialogue (Walton 2013), or any other way.  \n2 Season 7, episode 23,“MuchApu about nothing.”  \nHomer: Not a bear in sight. The bear patrol must be working like a  \ncharm.  \nLisa: That’s specious reasoning, dad.  \nHomer: Thank you, honey.  \nLisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.  \nHomer: Oh, how does it work?  \nLisa: It doesn’t work.  \nHomer: Uh-huh.  \nLisa: It’s just a stupid rock.  \nHomer: Uh-huh.  \nLisa: But I don’t see any tigers around, do you?  \nHomer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.  \nHere, Homer puts forward an argument to the effect that the current absence of bears shows that the bear patrol is working. It is a bad argument because it pretends to establish a relation of causality by pointing to a single instance of presence of bear patrol and absence of bears, whereas historically there has been no such correlation—there had never been neither bears nor bear patrols. Lisa tries to show this to her father with her analogy of the “anti-tiger” rock, albeit with little success. Nevertheless, the important point here is that L","cbCaiossUnOTOCHk","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiossUnOTOCHk","pdf",235762,1,14,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Bad arguments and counterargument\n## Example: Homer and Lisa (The Simpsons)\n## Example: anti-mask arguments during COVID-19","[{\"question\":\"How does Frankfurt define bullshit in relation to truth?\",\"answer\":\"Bullshit is characterized as assertions made without a concern for truth.\"},{\"question\":\"What distinguishes argumentative bullshit from bad arguments in general?\",\"answer\":\"Argumentative bullshit involves producing an argument without concern for whether the reasons actually support the claim, not merely presenting a flawed conclusion.\"},{\"question\":\"Why can some argumentative bullshit be especially hard to counter?\",\"answer\":\"In cases where the argument relies on misleading analogies or misconceived conceptual framing, a reasonable counterargument may feel awkward or indirect.\"}]","Argumentative Bullshit - A Speech-Act Account of Arguments Without Supporting Relation | PDF",1787832596,22,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"argumentative-bullshit-a-speech-act-account-of-arguments-without-supporting-relation","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/argumentative-bullshit-a-speech-act-account-of-arguments-without-supporting-relation/151089/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-05","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"How does Frankfurt define bullshit in relation to truth?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Bullshit is characterized as assertions made without a concern for truth.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What distinguishes argumentative bullshit from bad arguments in general?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Argumentative bullshit involves producing an argument without concern for whether the reasons actually support the claim, not merely presenting a flawed conclusion.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why can some argumentative bullshit be especially hard to counter?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"In cases where the argument relies on misleading analogies or misconceived conceptual framing, a reasonable counterargument may feel awkward or indirect.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,119,124,129,132,136],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]