More recently, Lévy was publicly embarrassed when his essay
De la guerre en philosophie (2010) cited the writings of French philosopher
Jean-Baptiste Botul.
[50] Botul's writings are actually well-known spoofs, and Botul himself is the purely fictional creation of a living French journalist and philosopher,
Frédéric Pagès. The obviousness of the hoax, with Botul's philosophy being
botulism, led to suspicions that Levy had not read Botul, and that he consequently might have used a
ghostwriter for his book. Responding in an opinion piece, Levy wrote: "It was a truly brilliant and very believable hoax from the mind of a
Canard Enchaîné journalist who remains a good philosopher all the same. So I was caught, as were the critics who reviewed the book when it came out. The only thing left to say, with no hard feelings, is kudos to the artist."