Famed French intellectual cites bogus ’Botulist’ philosopher 知名法國知識份子引用虛構的「波都爾」學派哲學家

◎張沛元

French celebrity intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy has been caught red-faced quoting a "Botulist" philosopher who, it turns out, was invented as a joke by a journalist from a satirical weekly.

法國知名知識份子貝爾納．亨利．萊維被抓包 引用一名「波都爾學派」哲學家的見解，結果這名學者不過是諷刺週刊的一名記者捏造來開玩笑的虛構人物。

In his new book, "De la guerre en philosophie" （Making war in philosophy）, Levy cites the insights of Jean-Baptiste Botul to show that German philosopher Immanuel Kant was not the bright light that some believe.

萊維在其新作「在 哲學中開戰」中，引述尚．巴堤．波都爾的見解，藉此顯示德國哲學家康德不如某些人所想的那般耀眼。

He has since discovered, however, that Botul is a fictional character, created as a literary satire by journalist Frederic Pages, who writes for the tongue in cheek Le Canard Enchaine.

然而，他此後發現波都爾是個虛構人物，是嘲諷性質的「鴨鳴報」記者弗雷德里克． 帕傑斯所創作的諷刺文學。

Levy admitted he had often quoted Botul’s work "The sex life of Immanuel Kant" during public appearances and now in the pages of his latest book.

萊維坦承過去常在公開場合引用波都爾的作品「康德的性生活」，如今還包括自己的最新著 作。

"As it turns out, it was a hoax," admitted the author in a statement posted on the website of his magazine, La Regle du Jeu.

萊 維在他的雜誌「遊戲規則」網站發表聲明，坦言「如同眾人所見，這是個騙局」。

新聞辭典

bogus： 形容詞，假造的。例句：Police have warned the local public to beware of bogus callers after an incident in which a 90 year old woman was swindled out of ￡70.（在發生一名90歲老嫗遭詐騙70英鎊後，警方已警告當地大眾小心假的致電者。）

red-faced：形容詞，尷尬的，窘迫 的。

tongue in cheek：俚語，意指開玩笑的，不正經的，無誠意的。