A “Philosopher” Falls Flat on His Face By James Reed

    I know nothing about contemporary philosophy, even less about French philosophy, but that does not prevent me from having an unnatural, perhaps slightly unhinged worldview of philosophers. Thus, following the links form one article, like an ageing bloodhound I came upon this gem, a bit dated, but still steaming with moral lessons:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7196517/Bernard-Henri-Levy-caught-out-by-fake-philosopher.html

“France's best-known philosopher, Bernard-Henri Lévy, has become the butt of intellectual ridicule after copiously quoting a leading authority on Kant who, it transpires, is a modern-day hoax.
Mr Lévy, who in France goes simply by his initials BHL, has been doing the media rounds to promote his new work, On War in Philosophy.
In his book, which has received lavish praise from some quarters, the open-shirted Mr Lévy lays into the philosopher Immanuel Kant as being unhinged and a "fake". To support his claims, he cites a certain Jean-Baptiste Botul, whom he describes as a post-War authority on Kant.
But the chorus of approval turned to laughter after a journalist from Le Nouvel Observateur pointed out that Mr Botul does not exist: he is a fictional character created in by a contemporary satirical journalist, Frédéric Pagès.
Alarm bells should have rung given that Mr Pagès, a journalist with Le Canard Enchaîneé, a satirical weekly, has penned one book under the Botul pseudonym entitled The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant.
He has even given rise to a school of philosophical thought called Botulism – a play on words with the lethal disease – and has created a theory of "La Metaphysique du Mou" the Metaphysics of the Flabby.”

    Philosophers have always struck me as more arrogant than even mathematicians and physicists, all claiming some special gift in understanding the nature of reality. Sure, physics is inconsistent, Brian tells me, so is maths because of the logical paradoxes, whatever they are, and philosophy, well they disagree about everything, including that, so the discipline must be nonsense.

    Another reason for closing down the universities. It has to be done if humanity is to survive, for universities  are more deadly than nuclear weapons. In fact, in the post-world War II period, the death toll from nuclear war is zero, but the death toll from the universities is … well behind all of our woes lies some slimy academic scribbler.

 

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Saturday, 02 November 2024

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