René Girard, Mimesis, and Conflict (with Cynthia Haven)
If you’re always imitating others or aspiring to be something else, what’s left of the “authentic” you? According to the French philosopher René Girard, not much: Nothing can be truly authentic, he argued–everything comes from somewhere else. This is just one of the many original and counterintuitive claims put forth in Girard’s sweeping approach to human history. He argues it is sameness, not our difference that leads to conflict, and he sees religion as a way to contain the chaos as opposed to its first cause. Читать дальше...