NH to DSL:
I recently read “The Art of Forgery”; a
history of several famous forgeries in art, literature and religious relics.
Some comments and a question.
Forgery seems a most postmodern crime, for
what is deceptive is not the art - for a good forgery is indistinguishable from
the original - but its provenance,
which is a story attached to the artwork. Lately art detectives have given up
on art expertise as effective forgery-detection, and instead rely of physical
forensics; but that to me is an admission of defeat.
You could make the case that all art is
forgery. “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”.
Consider a painting, beautiful and
reputedly by a master, and therefore worth a million dollars. One day its
provenance is debunked, and its market value falls to a thousand dollars. Then
the painting’s debunker is himself debunked; the painting’s honor is
triumphantly restored, as is its market value. Is the painting’s beauty only
worth $1000, and its reputation the other $999,000? This of course links to the
fictitious nature of money.
The
book also mentions written forgeries, such as ‘lost’ Shakespeare plays; and
also the Donation of Constantine. The last proves that some forgeries can last
centuries and have major effect. So what else that’s so that isn’t so?
If
literature can be forged, then can philosophy? Imagine this scenario: a
previously-unknown philosophy student posts on the Web two unknown works by a
famous philosopher; both as text and as photo-scan. One of those works really
was written by the famous philosopher, but the other one was written by the
student. The student claims that both originals were destroyed in a fire; this
arouses suspicions. Experts inspect the photo-scans and say that both were
written either by the famous philosopher, or by a skilled forger. (Which the
student admittedly was.) They also concur that both works were indeed
expressions of the famous philosopher’s thought, or of a learned disciple; and
that the first work (genuine) was a minor amusement, but the second work
(forged) was a masterpiece. On the basis of this they accuse the student of
forging the first work. The student then produces the originals of both works,
which had not been destroyed in a
fire after all; forensic examination proves that the first, inferior, work was
genuine, the second, superior, work was forged by the student. And finally, to
complete the scandal, it turns out that the student was _not_ a disciple of the
famous philosopher, but was in fact a harsh critic, and that the student’s
forgery, merely by existing and succeeding, refuted a core tenet of the famous
philosopher’s thought! Is the student a philosopher? Has any crime been committed?
The above paragraph reminds me of Alan
Sokal’s “Social Text” hoax. Can you think of other philosophical hoaxes, frauds
and forgeries? They needn’t involve financial gain - who ever makes money from
philosophical thought? - for with most art forgers, money-gain takes second
place to honor or glory or revenge.
DSL to NH:
This is what comes first to mind, if only
because of his appelation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Dionysius_the_Areopagite
In general, there are numerous passages in
the “ancients” which have been demonstrated to be inauthentic interpellations
by later commentators, etc. Not being a textual historian of philosophy, and
being familiar with only modern critical editions of ancient philosophical
works, I can’t cite any specific such passages; I only know that such have existed.
