Boutang was an alumnus of the
Ecole Normale Supérieure (L 1935) and "agrégé de philosophie" in 1936, he participated that year in editing
Action Française and showed fervent support for the ideas of
Charles Maurras. That same year, while still a student, he married Marie-Claire Canque, a Hellenist, a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure like him, and who bore him six children. He was a member of
Giraud's government in
North Africa in 1943, and enlisted in the French colonial army, serving in
Tunisia and
Morocco until 1945. He was discharged without pension and prohibited from teaching. Thereafter he took up journalism, collaborating, since its founding in 1947, at
Aspects de la France, where his articles from a royalist viewpoint showed obvious
antisemitism. He was a regular contributor to
Bulletin de Paris, where using a pseudonym, he reviewed plays. Seeking to renew
royalism, in alignment with
Christianity, with his friend
Michel Vivier he founded the weekly
La Nation Française in 1955, to which
Les Hussards and also
Marcel Aymé,
Gustave Thibon, and
Armand Robin contributed. It ceased to exist in 1967. He wanted to create "a Sartre shelter" that also functioned against the adherents of
nihilism. He veered between supporting
Charles de Gaulle and opposing him, insisting notably on the monarchical model on which, in his view, the constitution of the
Cinquième République rested. Though he denounced the terror for which the
FLN was responsible, Boutang refused to support the
OAS. From the 1970s, his political declarations became rarer, but he showed a firm loyalty to the
Comte de Paris. After representations by
Edmond Michelet,
Alain Peyrefitte and others, Boutang was allowed to teach by President de Gaulle in 1967. He taught philosophy at the Lycée Turgot, and then became a lecturer at the University of Brest in 1974. Finally he was appointed Professeur of Metaphysics at the
Sorbonne, where he taught until 1984, continuing his seminars at his home in
Saint-Germain-en-Laye until the end of his life. He died on 27 June 1998. ==Works==