For thousands of years, political leaders have unified communities by aligning them against common enemies. However, today more than ever, the search for “common” enemies results in anything but unani
This exciting compendium brings together, for the first time, some of the foremost scholars of Rene Girard’s mimetic theory, with leading imitation researchers from the cognitive, developmental, and n
When Athenians suffered the shame of having lost a war from their own greed and foolishness, around 404 BCE the public’s blame was directed at Socrates, a man whose unique appearance and behavior, as
Alberg (philosophy and religion, International Christian U.) interrogates the dynamics of libidinal revelation in several readings of classical and more modern texts. In particular, he is focusing on
Dawson (modern languages, U. of Costa Rica) traces the evolution of the word "scapegoat" through English from its original Biblical meaning referring to a goat that symbolically carried sins away in t
Bandera (emeritus, Spanish U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) takes a fascinating tour of the truth, and of the truth of truth. He begins by examining two sets of the truth, and the truth of each tr
Nidesh Lawtoo presents a study of subjectivity in the modern era, focusing on the processes of unconscious mimesis that Lawtoo argues Nietzsche saw at work in "the herd mentality." The phantom of the
In Battling to the End Rene Girard engages Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), the Prussian military theoretician who wrote On War. Clausewitz, who has been critiqued by military strategists, political s
We seem to be abandoning the codes that told previous generations who they should love. But now that many of us are free to choose whoever we want, nothing is less certain. The proliferation of divorc
Author Palaver, a board member of a nonprofit organization dedicated to Girard's mimetic theory, is uniquely placed to examine the main components of Girard's mimetic cycle: mimetic rivalry, Girard's
