You may know Bernard-Henri Lévy as the founder of the ‘New Philosophy’ movement, or for his influential work ‘L’idéologie française’. Perhaps you’ve heard of his dandy-like narcissism that caused Noel Godin to repeatedly throw pies at him in the street. Or, perhaps, you know him for his vociferous defense of his recently scandalised friend, Dominique Strauss Kahn. Here we look at the man through his own words.

“Nothing is more moral than wanting to topple a dictator” April 7, 2007 

When asked about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he described them as ‘catastrophes’ created not by a lack of morality (if anything, a case of over-moralising) but a plan-less, consensus-less political naivety. To put it more succinctly: ‘morally right and politically wrong’.

“If you really want to think, you must turn your back on clichés” January, 2010

In an interview, BHL spoke of his unpopularity in France being rooted in his country-men’s suspicion of success: ‘Money is cursed, shameful, money disqualifies you … In America, even though it is a Protestant country, it’s the opposite’. His aspiration to live several lives, he says, can be traced to his name, ‘Lévy’ is also ‘les vies’: the lives.

“It’s the role of the philosopher to land blows” February 9, 2010

BHL came under ridicule from the literary world when he quoted Jean-Baptiste Botul, in his attack of Immanuel Kant, not knowing that Botul was an invented philosopher, created by a journalist in 1999 as an elaborate joke. BHL laughed off mockery from the Left Bank, claiming that it didn’t matter if the philosopher was real or not: whoever wrote it, he liked the sentiment.

“There is no justification for throwing a man to the dogs” May 16, 2011

Said by BHL in an article in defence of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in The Daily Beast. The arguments he puts forward are as follows:  

• He was having lunch with his daughter at the time of the accusation

• Why was there only one chambermaid, when New York’s grand hotels traditionally send a ‘cleaning brigade’ into the room?

• Why did Tristine Banon, the other alleged rape victim, wait eight years to make the accusation?

• The press’ depiction of Strauss-Khan ‘as a sicko, a pervert, border-lining on serial killer, a psychiatrist’s dream’ is grossly unfair: BHL has been friends with Strauss-Kahn for 20 years, and there is no justification for his friend being  publicly mistreated

IQ2 hosts a night with Bernard Henri-Lévy on December 13th, 2011, at the Royal Geographic Society. Click here to buy your tickets.