In 2002 a respected publisher issued a volume that made shocking accusations about the then Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. Not satisfied with calling him an animal, it described him as “exceptionally rapacious” and “predatory and destructive”: even (in an outrageous pun) as Homo rapiens. He was “not obviously worth preserving”; his life had “no more meaning than that of a slime mould” The Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics, the writer added, was entirely without insight into his degraded nature. He imagined that he was different from, indeed superior to, all other living creatures in virtue of having a distinctive consciousness, selfhood and free will. In reality, the professor's life was a “fragmentary dream”.

It is difficult to imagine a more thorough character assassination and you might expect that the Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics would take the author to court, demanding retraction and a six-figure settlement. The reason he didn't follow this course of action is rather surprising; the book was Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals and the author was none other than John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. While the libel laws in the United Kingdom have in recent years proved asinine, they would not, I think, have countenanced a plaintiff suing himself. Anyway, Gray's legal position was weakened because he had generalized the nasty things he said about himself to all humankind. A class action would not have been to his advantage.