Last week, The Daily reached out to Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt, famous for his essay, “On Bulls***,” inquiring about a recent interview President Obama gave Rolling Stone, in which he indirectly referred to Mitt Romney as a “bulls****r.” On Tuesday night, the professor got back to us:

Dear Mr. Libit,

Thank you for your email.  I must tell you that I am tired of talking about bulls***.  Just this morning I recorded an interview on the subject with somebody from the Canadian Broadcasting System, and that is surely enough for a while.

As for Romney, the only question is whether he is a bulls****er or simply a liar.  Probably, he is both.  One of his aides has announced that they are not going to allow fact checkers to dictate their campaign, which suggests that — in terms of my conception of bulls*** — they regard themselves as dedicated bulls****ers.  But it is pretty clear that they do a lot of lying as well.

I don’t really have anything more to say about the matter than this. The only remaining mystery is why the public, which often reacts strongly against lying, is so tolerant of bulls***.

Sincerely,

Harry Frankfurt

(Source: thedaily.com)