On Thu, 11 Feb 2010, Chris Doss wrote:
> In what sense is BHL actually a philosopher?
In the sense that he got a graduate degree in philosophy?
In French he originally came to fame as the spokesman of the nouveaux philosophes. Philosophe doesn't mean philosopher, it means public intellectual, intellectuel engage. But it's routinely mistranslated and conflated by the French themselves and perhaps that's why it's stuck. He's been chided about his intellectual lightweightness from the very beginning of his career.
Some day I have to find a copy of the original TIME magazine that raised that mangy group to world fame in 1977. There is a picture of him as a young man that is unbelievable. In a room full of models and film stars he would still stand out as the prettiest. He looked like pre-Raphaelite ideal.
Michael