René Girard
| René Girard | |
|---|---|
Girard in 2007
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| Born | René Noël Théophile Girard December 25, 1923 Avignon, France |
| Died | November 4, 2015 (aged 91) Stanford, California, U.S. |
| Institutions |
Duke University, Bryn Mawr College, Johns Hopkins University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Stanford University |
| Alma mater |
École Nationale des Chartes (MA) Indiana University (PhD) |
| Notable students | Peter Thiel, Andrew Feenberg |
| Known for |
Mimetic desire Scapegoat mechanism as origin of sacrifice and foundation of human culture |
| Influences | Claude Lévi-Strauss |
| Notable awards |
Académie française (Seat 37) Knight of the Légion d’honneur Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres |
| Spouse | Martha Girard |
| Children | 3 |
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René Noël Théophile Girard (/ʒiˈrɑːrd/; French: [ʒiʁaʁ]; December 25, 1923 – November 4, 2015) was a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of anthropological philosophy. Girard was the author of nearly thirty books, with his writings spanning many academic domains. Although the reception of his work is different in each of these areas, there is a growing body of secondary literature on his work and his influence on disciplines such as literary criticism, critical theory, anthropology, theology, psychology, mythology, sociology, economics, cultural studies, and philosophy.
Girard's fundamental ideas, which he had developed throughout his career and provided the foundation for his thinking, were that desire is mimetic (i.e. all of our desires are borrowed from other people), that all conflict originates in mimetic desire (mimetic rivalry), that the scapegoat mechanism is the origin of sacrifice and the foundation of human culture, and religion was necessary in human evolution to control the violence that can come from mimetic rivalry, and that the Bible reveals these ideas and denounces the scapegoat mechanism.
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