Mimetic Theory
An explanation of social and cultural phenomena based on the role of imitation in human behavior—particularly, the imitation of desire (mimetic desire) and its consequences. The foundations of mimetic theory were laid by the French polymath René Girard in 1961 in his book Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, which described mimetic desire (what he usually […]
Desire
A complex phenomenon of human life involving emotions and actions which are part of the process of wanting something or someone
Memetic Theory versus Mimetic Theory
Anthropologists have spent decades trying to explain the enormous diversity between different groups of people. How did tipping twenty percent become the norm in the U.S. but not in Europe? Why do Japanese business people greet one another with bows instead of handshakes? Why do some organizations have cultural “lingo” and others don’t? (And why […]
The Meme Machine — by Susan Blackmore
The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore is one of the best recent books on Richard Dawkin’s famous meme theory, which describes how culture is transmitted from person to person and down through history. Memes purport to explain the development of culture through the imitation of things. Memes are like genes: they are replicators, competing for […]
Living with Robots —by Paul Dumouchel and Luisa Damiano
Living with Robots is a fascinating exploration of artificial intelligence that draws on mimetic theory to understand the phenomenon of social robots that exist in the real world, with real bodies, and interact with humans. The book is deeply philosophical and contemplates the possibility that we are at an inflection point in human evolution due […]
The Humble Story of Don Quixote: Reflections on the Birth of the Modern Novel—by Cesáreo Bandera
The Humble Story of Don Quixote, written by a master of mimetic theory (Bandera), applies mimetic theory to better understand what is arguably the greatest novel ever written—or at least the first modern novel ever written. Don Quixote occupied such a high place in the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s opinion that he said this […]
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature —by Erich Auerback
[Note: We chose to display the cover from the French edition from the 60’s rather than the modern cover.] Erich Auerback did one of the most extensive studies of mimesis in literature before Girard. Auerback, professor or Romance Languages at Yale University, makes a sweeping account of European literature from the Odyssey to Ulysses and […]
The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes — by James Alison
The Joy of Being Wrong is a work of theological anthropology that looks at original sin (in the Christian tradition) in light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. James Alison, the author, is a Catholic theologian who is intimately familiar with Girard’s thought and so his anthropological perspective is thoroughly mimetic—he views mimesis as fundamental […]
Intersubjectivity in Economics: Agents and Structures – edited by Edward Fullbrook
The editor of this volume is Edward Fullbrook, who is founder and editor of the Real-World Economics Review and a research fellow in the School of Economics at the University of the West of England. The volume explores the notion of intersubjectivity in economics and explodes the is of neoclassical economics of an atomistic economic […]
The Mimetic Brain – by Jean-Michel Oughourlian
The well-known psychiatrist Jean-Michel Oughourlian, a collaborator with René Girard on the book Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, referred to the Mimetic, or third, brain as the part of the brain which has the function of relationship, reciprocity, mimeticism. Obviously, every person only has one biological brain—but different functions of the brain […]