28 Facts About Rene Girard

Rene Noel Theophile Girard was a French polymath, historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of philosophical anthropology.

Rene Girard believed that human development occurs initially through a process of observational mimicry, where the infant develops desire through a process of learning to copy adult behaviour, fundamentally linking acquisition of identity, knowledge and material wealth to the development of a desire to have something others possess.

Rene Girard's ideas ran sharply contrary to the post-modernism in vogue through most of his life, and his views of human nature were pessimistic in contrast with the mainstream currents of his time.

Rene Girard saw religion as an essential instrument of cohesion, believing that the primary purpose of sacred texts was to end the practice of human sacrifice through ritualistically surrogating for the behaviour triggered by scapegoat mechanism, adopting and expanding many of Nietzsche's ideas.

Rene Girard studied medieval history at the Ecole des Chartes, Paris, where the subject of his thesis was "Private life in Avignon in the second half of the 15th century".

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In 1947, Rene Girard went to Indiana University on a one-year fellowship.

Rene Girard was to spend most of his career in the United States.

Rene Girard received his PhD in 1950 and stayed at Indiana University until 1953.

Rene Girard occupied positions at Duke University and Bryn Mawr College from 1953 to 1957, after which he moved to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, where he became a full professor in 1961.

In 1981, Girard became Andrew B Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, where he stayed until his retirement in 1995.

Rene Girard's work has inspired interdisciplinary research projects and experimental research such as the Mimetic Theory project sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.

Rene Girard calls desire "metaphysical" in the measure that, as soon as a desire is something more than a simple need or appetite, "all desire is a desire to be", it is an aspiration, the dream of a fullness attributed to the mediator.

The stress on imitation in humans was not a popular subject when Rene Girard developed his theories, but today there is independent support for his claims coming from empirical research in psychology and neuroscience.

Rene Girard posits that intensified conflict is a product of the imitative behaviors of Israelis and Palestinians, entitling them "Siamese twins".

Rene Girard becomes sacred, that is to say the bearer of the prodigious power of defusing the crisis and bringing peace back.

Rene Girard believes this to be the genesis of archaic religion, that is, ritual sacrifice as the repetition of the original event, of myth as an account of this event, of the taboos that forbid access to all the objects at the origin of the rivalries that degenerated into this absolutely traumatizing crisis.

Iff Rene Girard's theory is true, then we will find in myths the culpability of the victim-god, depictions of the selection of the victim and his power to beget the order that governs the group.

Rene Girard found these elements in numerous myths, beginning with that of Oedipus which he analyzed in this and later books.

However, Rene Girard took this concept from Burke and developed it much more extensively as an interpretation of human culture.

Unlike Eric Gans, Rene Girard does not think that there is an original scene during which there is "a sudden shift from non-representation to representation, " or a sudden shift from animality to humanity.

In Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Rene Girard discusses for the first time Christianity and the Bible.

Rene Girard is critical of the optimism of humanist observers, who believe in the natural goodness of man and the progressive improvement of his historical conditions.

Rene Girard's influence extends beyond philosophy and social science, and includes the literary realm.

Some critics have pointed out that while Rene Girard may be the first to have suggested that all desire is mimetic, he is by no means the first to have noticed that some desire is mimetic – Gabriel Tarde's book Les lois de l'imitation appeared in 1890.

At times, Rene Girard acknowledges his indebtedness to such precursors, including Tocqueville.

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However, original sin, according to Rene Girard's interpretation, explains only our propensity to imitate, not the specific content of our imitated desires.

Elizabeth Traube, for example, reminds us that there are other ways of making sense of the data that Rene Girard borrows from Evans-Pritchard and company—ways that are more consistent with the practices of the given culture.

One of the main sources of criticism of Rene Girard's work comes from intellectuals who claim that his comparison of Judeo-Christian texts vis-a-vis other religions leaves something to be desired.