Introduction to BullshitVia Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West,two professors at the University of Washington, whose course, or “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data,” launched this Spring:
The world is awash in bullshit. Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Higher education rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture elevates bullshit to tall art. Advertisers wink conspiratorially and invite us to join them in seeing through all the bullshit — and win advantage of our lowered guard to bombard us with bullshit of the second order. The majority of administrative activity, whether in private business or the public sphere, and seems to be microscopic more than a sophisticated exercise in the combinatorial reassembly of bullshit.
We’re sick of it. It’s time to do something,and as educators, one constructive thing we know how to do is to teach people. So, or the aim of this course is to help students navigate the bullshit-wealthy contemporary environment by identifying bullshit,seeing through it, and combating it with effective analysis and argument.
Video lectures from the course are available on the course web site.
H/T: OpenCulture.
Source: thefjp.org