On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:25 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [via Lou Proyect]
>
> Irish Times - February 10, 2010
>
> http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0210/1224264114285.html
>
> Existential crisis as Lévy quotes fictional philosopher
> RUADHÁN Mac CORMAIC in Paris
>
> THERE'S NOTHING unusual about a new book by French celebrity philosopher
> Bernard-Henri Lévy causing a media stir or provoking anguished debate in
> left-bank intellectual circles. But never has his work given rise to an
> existential question quite like this one.
>
> In his latest title, Lévy launches a scathing attack on the 18th century
> German philosopher Immanuel Kant, calling him "raving mad" and a "fake".
>
> The book, De la guerre en philosophie (On War in Philosophy) , has been
> greeted with the customary rapture, and its ubiquitous author has been a
> fixture on television and in the press all week.
>
> In framing his case, Lévy – BHL to the Parisian cognoscenti – drew on the
> writings of the little-known 20th century thinker Jean-Baptiste Botul –
> author of The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant , and a man Lévy has cited in
> lectures.
>
> The problem? Botul never existed. He was invented by a journalist from the
> satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné 10 years ago as an elaborate joke.
> And since the hoax was revealed, BHL has become a laughing stock.
>
> "As it turns out, it was a hoax," admitted the author in a blog post after
> the blunder was spotted by a journalist from Le Nouvel Observateur.
>
> The man who wrote in Botul's name, literary journalist Frédéric Pagès, has
> made little attempt to keep it a secret.
>
> Botul's Wikipedia entry describes him as "a fictitious writer" whose
> seminal work on the sex life of the 18th century German philosopher was
> followed by a pamphlet titled La Métaphysique du Mou ( The Metaphysics of
> the Flabby ).
>
> Lévy, a philosopher with a penchant for elaborate hair, open-necked shirts
> and pronouncements on every conceivable subject, evidently missed the joke.
>
> In his new book, he cites a series of lectures Botul supposedly gave to
> "the neo-Kantians of Paraguay" after the war, in which he said that "their
> hero was an abstract fake, a pure spirit of pure appearance".
>
> Speaking after the error came to light, Lévy said he had always admired The
> Sex Life of Immanuel Kant and that its arguments were sound.
>
> He conceded that it was "a truly brilliant and very believable hoax" by a
> journalist "who remains a good philosopher all the same".
>
> Doubtless enjoying the moment, Pagès said: "It has never been firmly
> established that Botul didn't exist and it cannot therefore be ruled out
> that one day history will prove Bernard-Henri Lévy right."
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