{"id":6781,"date":"2017-04-27T19:19:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T19:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.plato-philosophy.org\/?post_type=teachertoolkit&#038;p=6781"},"modified":"2025-03-05T15:29:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T23:29:25","slug":"truth-lies-bullshit","status":"publish","type":"teachertoolkit","link":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/teachertoolkit\/truth-lies-bullshit\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth, Lies and Bullshit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Part 1: What is the difference between Truth, a Lie and Bullshit?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Students should begin by writing brief definitions of these words:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TRUTH, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LIE,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SATIRE\/ JOKE,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FICTION,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MISTAKE, BULLSHIT (or, politely, BS)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>What is the difference between truth, lie, satire\/joke, fiction, mistake, and BS?<\/p>\n<p>After 10 minutes, discuss how these concepts overlap and differ from each other. \u00a0It is important to get to the point where the students see that a lie involves a complicated mental state. In order to lie, one must:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know the truth<\/li>\n<li>Say the opposite and intend for it to be believed by the listener<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The listener&#8217;s state of mind is important to this as well. \u00a0The third link on the Resources tab is about Harry Frankfurt&#8217;s famous definition of bullshit, something which has become prescient in how well he predicted the age of bullshit.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, the question of how we can know the truth arises. \u00a0This lesson does not aim to answer this question, but to investigate three positions on how truth arises: correspondence theory, coherence theory and pragmatism. \u00a0The students should use the first link to understand the differences between the theories and try to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each theory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.toktalk.net\/2008\/11\/09\/three-different-types-of-truth\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/www.toktalk.net\/2008\/11\/09\/three-different-types-of-truth\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cpl5jQpLomE\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cpl5jQpLomE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Part 2: What is the Value of Truth?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Facilitate a discussion with the students about the value of truth. You can use the selection from Harry Frankfurt&#8217;s <em>On Truth<\/em> if you would like or simply proceed directly to discussion. You might consider these questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is truth valuable? Why or why not?<\/li>\n<li>Could a society function without some shared idea of what the truth is?<\/li>\n<li>What is useful about the truth? How might getting to the truth not be useful?<\/li>\n<li>Do all truths have practical value? Which truths do you think might not be practically useful?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Part 3: How can we spot Fake News and Alternative Facts?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Excerpted from <em>How to Spot Fake News<\/em>, Eugene Kiely and Lori Robertson, November, 2016<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2016\/11\/how-to-spot-fake-news\/<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David Mikkelson <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.snopes.com\/2016\/11\/17\/we-have-a-bad-news-problem-not-a-fake-news-problem\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">warned<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a Nov. 17 article not to lump everything into the \u201cfake news\u201d category. \u201cThe <\/span><b>fictions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>fabrications<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that comprise fake news are but a subset of the larger <\/span><b><i>bad news<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> phenomenon, which also encompasses many forms of shoddy, unresearched, error-filled, and deliberately misleading reporting that do a disservice to everyone,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of these viral claims aren\u2019t \u201cnews\u201d at all, but <\/span><b>fiction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>satire<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>efforts to fool readers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into thinking they\u2019re for real.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b> Key Characteristics of Bogusness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 Among them: an <\/span><b>anonymous author<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; <\/span><b>excessive exclamation points<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>capital letters and misspellings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; <\/span><b>entreaties that \u201cThis is NOT a hoax<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!\u201d; and <\/span><b>links to sourcing that does not support or completely contradicts the claims being made.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s our advice on how to spot a fake:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider the source. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read beyond the headline. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check the author.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s the support?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check the date. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is this some kind of joke?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check your biases. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consult the experts. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n<p>Discussion Questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Have you seen anything you think is fake news recently? What made you think that?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Often people spot fake news when it relates to something they disagree with but less when it concerns an idea they do agree with. Why might that be the case?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is something &#8220;news&#8221; if it is not, in fact, true?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 1: What is the difference between Truth, a Lie and Bullshit? Students should begin by writing brief definitions of these words: TRUTH, LIE,\u00a0SATIRE\/ JOKE,\u00a0FICTION,\u00a0MISTAKE, BULLSHIT (or, politely, BS) What is the difference between truth, lie, satire\/joke, fiction, mistake, and BS? After 10 minutes, discuss how these concepts overlap and differ from each other. \u00a0It <a href=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/teachertoolkit\/truth-lies-bullshit\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Truth, Lies and Bullshit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2626,"template":"","toolkitcategory":[757,759,33],"gradelevel":[48],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-6781","teachertoolkit","type-teachertoolkit","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","toolkitcategory-epistemology","toolkitcategory-philosophy-of-science","toolkitcategory-science","gradelevel-high-school-and-beyond"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Truth, Lies and Bullshit - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Truth, Lies and Bullshit - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part 1: What is the difference between Truth, a Lie and Bullshit? Students should begin by writing brief definitions of these words: TRUTH, LIE,\u00a0SATIRE\/ JOKE,\u00a0FICTION,\u00a0MISTAKE, BULLSHIT (or, politely, BS) What is the difference between truth, lie, satire\/joke, fiction, mistake, and BS? After 10 minutes, discuss how these concepts overlap and differ from each other. \u00a0It ... 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