Learn more about religionandspirituality with this collection
How to make rational decisions
The role of biases in decision-making
The impact of social norms on decision-making
René Girard
A French philosopher he developed a unique worldview based on the concept of mimetic desire. According to him, human beings are constantly seeking to imitate and emulate the desires of others, and this process of imitation drives much of human behavior and social dynamics.
His main idea is that desire is always mediated through the desires of others, and that this process of imitation creates conflicts and rivalries that are fundamental to human society.
He is gaining a lot of praise recently with lots of Silicon Valley luminaries listing him as a major intellectual influencer.
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Spirited Animals
For Girard, we are different than animals because of our desires, our myths, our lies. We invent stories, we go to war for abstract concepts etc. This is a the object of his psychological focused philosophy.
Similar to how class was the nexus of socialism, how casts worked in Hinduism, or ...
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Girardian Scapegoating
According to Girard, is a social mechanism that arrises from a cataclysmic event. A troubled society murders an "innocent" victim (blamed for all evils) & thus gains cathartic release and gains new new Gods. This event is dramatised, captured in myth and ...
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It's no wonder the European aristocracy went into business as soon as heroes and warriors went out of fashion.
RENÉ GIRARD
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The mechanism to protect against violence
For Girard, violence is natural. But modern day seems quite peaceful. And Girard credits 2 institutions:
- capitalism: which Girard sees it as a status seeking game more than a rational transfer of resources.
- laws: a set of institutions that medi...
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Mimetic Desire
Girard observed that our desires are social. We rarely desire an object for it's intrinsic functional qualities. We usually use the objects as proxies for an identity we envy.
Desire are not fixed or innate, but rather constantly changing & under the influence of the peopl...
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The Uniqueness of Christian Scapegoating
The Christian mythology follows the same Girardian arc: civil unrest in Judea, Jesus crucified as a scapegoat, turned into a God, institutionalized through the church.
However, the unique element is that the story is told for the perspective of the victim, rather than of the accuse...
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Life-long learner. Passionate about leadership, entrepreneurship, philosophy, Buddhism & SF. Founder @deepstash.
Basic Girardian ideas beautifully presented by a young philosopher, Jonathan Bo, in conversation with David Perell.
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