Mimetic Theory and Islam: “The Wound Where Light Enters” – by Michael Kirwan & Ahmad Achtar
This volume explores mimetic theory and its shared ground between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—the Abrahamic religions—which seems to have a spiritual and ethical breakthrough: a move away from scapegoating rituals and toward a concern for innocent victims. This is a move away from negative cycles of desire that lead to violence and toward positive cycles of desire that lead to communion. The table of contents of the book is as follows: Part I: THE ARGUMENT 1:The Wound Where Light Enters: Mimetic Theory and IslamMichael Kirwan and Ahmad Achtar Part II: TEXTS 2: Islamic Anthropology, based on Key Passages in the Qur’anZekiriga Sejdini 3: Adam and Eve in the Qur’an: A Mimetic PerspectiveAhmad Achtar 4: The Becoming of a Model: Conflictive Relations and the Shaping of the Quranic IbrahimMichaela Quast-Neulinger 5: Fathers and Sons, Sacrifice and Substitution: Mimetic Theory and Islam in Genesis 22 and Sura 37Sandor Goodhart 6: From Structure to Interpretation of the Joseph SuraMichel Cuypers PART III: TRADITIONS 7: Spiritual Love and Sacred Suffering: Mimetic Theory from the Shi’ah PerspectiveHabibollah Babaei 8: The Philosophy of Dialogic Engagement: Two Muslim Dialogue Thinkers vis-a-vis Mimetic TheoryOemer Sener PART IV: CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM IN RESENTFUL MODERNITY 9: Islam and Islamism in the Mirror of Girard’s Mimetic TheoryThomas Scheffler 10: Prison Violence in France and Mimetic TheoryYaniss Warrach 11: Muslim Brotherhood, Social Justice and ResentmentWilhelm Guggenberger 12: Vox victima, vox moderna? Modernity and Its DiscontentsMichael Kirwan Check out Mimetic Theory & Islam on Amazon
Stoicism and Mimetic Desire
American cultural lumineers like Tim Ferriss (stoicism is “an ideal operating system for thriving in high-stress environments”) and Nassim Nicholas Taleb (“A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking”) have embraced and promoted the philosophy in their work. Ryan Holiday built a brand around it. The high priests of Silicon Valley like Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Kevin Rose (Digg), and Phil Libin (Evernote) promote Stoicism as a transformative wellness practice. So how does stoicism relate to mimetic theory? First, stoicism is a practical philosophy of desire. It equips followers to deal with unexpected events, people, and passions. Stoicism seems to grasp that desire is social in nature, but assumes that people can basically learn to become indifferent to desire through stoic practices. The first century Stoic philosopher Epictetus—arguably the most influential late Stoic, who is still influencing minds today as he did in the Roman empire—recommended indifference to desire as part of his practical guidance for life. “If you fail in your desire, you are unfortunate,” he wrote. “If you experience what you would rather avoid you are unhappy. As for desire, suspend it completely for now.” According to Epictetus, if desire causes you trouble (and it inevitably will), it’s better to do away with it than grapple with it. But doing away with desire is not an option. To suspend it would be to suspend a core constituent of the human soul. Epictetus is asking the impossible. We are homo desiderius—the creature who desires. We can desire not to desire, but the circularity would make us dizzy. The second way that stoicism related to mimetic theory is this: stoicism provides an incomplete answer to the question of desire which mimetic theory completes. The incompleteness of stoicism can be grasped by seeing that desire is mimetic and therefore not something that can be “thought” away. Even solitary hermit monks have desires because they are social beings in the world and are still in relationship with others, even if they are separated by physical distance. Stoicism does not address the fundamental question of what to do about mimetic desire—that is, about desires that are not able to be extinguished but must be grappled with as living, dynamic realities in human life. Third, and lastly, stoicism intuits the nature of rivalry and provides practical guidance to finding tranquility amidst a world constantly in flux. In our liquid modernity, stoic thinking offers some respite from the winds of change by allowing people to sink down into a deeper layer of psychology that is less mimetic and therefore less prone to disturbance. Stoicism counsels taking specific measures to decrease or even empty one’s self of desire. But the “emptying” of desire is never enough. Once we become aware of mimetic desire, we can channel it for good. Our ability to want things beyond our basic psychological drives, like meaningful work, is one of the most important things that differentiates us from animals. Intentional desire is what propels us to create a better world.
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 to the ability of robots to have what the authors refer to as “artificial empathy.” What are the rules governing social behavior? Human desire, according to Girard, is one of the most powerful forces guiding human behavior. If that is true, then designers of AI cannot ignore the impact of mimetic desire and the role that it plays in making us uniquely human—and mimetic. This book is particularly concerned with the “moral behavior” and ethical concerns of robots, and explores the possibility of robots having agency. This is a fundamental text for any exploration of the relationship between mimetic desire and freedom.
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 to what it means to be human. In one striking passage, Alison compares mimesis to gravity. Mimesis is to psychology what gravity is to psychics. Here he comments on the “draw” of a child to an adult (like its mother): “This draw, which is what enabled all of us to have access to language and human society, has the same relationship to humans as gravity does to planets. It is the mysterious movement which is nevertheless evidently there (evidently as soon, that is, as it has occurred to someone to ask why things are as they are) and without which there would be chaos. This movement, Oughourlian, following Girard, calls mimesis. It is to psychology what gravity is to psychics. It is made concrete in the imitation, learning, and repetition which is what enables an infant to become a socialized human being. “ The contents of the book are: Foreword by Sebastian MooreIntroduction Part IConstructing a Theological Anthropology 1.René Girard’s Mimetic Theory2. The Search for a Theological Anthropology3. The Search for a Soteriology Part IIStretching the Shape of Forgiveness 4. The Resurrection and Original Sin5. The Intelligence of the Victim and the Distortion of Desire6. Original Sin Known in Its Ecclesial Overcoming7. The Trinity, Creation, and Original Sin8. Hope and Concupiscence9. Reimagining the Symbol of Original Sin Part IIIIs This What the Church Believes? 10. Is this what the Church Believes? BibliographyIndex
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life — by Luke Burgis
WANTING is a large-scale exposition of mimetic theory and its practical applications, especially the positive potential of mimesis, written by entrepreneur, author, and professor of business Luke Burgis. This book is the most ambitious and engaging explanation of mimetic theory for someone new to Girard’s thought. The book has a wide, sweeping range, moving from an interview with Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel in the introduction to recounting the story of Zappos.com and the rivalry between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari to a three-Michelin-star chef Sebastien Bras, who renounced his stars and told the Michelin Guide not to come back to his restaurant or include him in the guide. The book is totally unsummarizable since it covers such broad ground and weaves together narrative with more academic explanations of mimetic theory. The first half of this book covers mimetic desire, distortions of desire (and objects), rivalries, conflict, and the scapegoating mechanism; the second part of the book deals with the transformation of desire. The second half of the book focuses on one can be anti-mimetic, or counteract and resist the forces of negative or destructive mimetic desire and thereby live a more fulfilling life. Learn more about Wanting.
Compassion Or Apocalypse?: A Comprehensible Guide to the Thought of Rene Girard – by James Warren
Apocalyptic Future, Warren’s written a gem, a much-needed “comprehensive” guide to Girard’s thought. It does an excellent job of starting “in the beginning,” with Genesis, and moving all the way through what Girard worried would be a man-made apocalypse. The table of contents is sweeping: Part I: MIMESIS Chapter 1: Mimesis and DesireChapter 2: Mimesis in Genesis 2 and 3Chapter 3: Scandal and Desire in the Gospels Part II: THE SCAPEGOAT Chapter 4: Sacrifice, Founding Murder, and the Scapegoat MechanismChapter 5: Mimesis, Rivalry, and Rounding Murder in GenesisChapter 6: The Primitive Sacred and the Hebrew Scriptures in Travail Chapter 7: MythologyChapter 8: The Gospel Revelation of Myth and Murder Part III: Compassion of Apocalypse Chapter 9: The Gerasene DemoniacChapter 10: The Apostle PaulChapter 11: Paradigm for a New Humanity Chapter 12: Apocalyptic Future and the Contemporary Situation Check out Compassion or Apocalypse on Amazon.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future – by Peter Thiel
What do you believe is true that almost nobody else believes is true? This is the question that the contrarian entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel poses at the beginning of his book, Zero to One. It’s a question especially important for startup founders to answer. In this book, Thiel himself answers it in the most compelling of ways—by taking his readers on a journey through his brilliant (and Girardian) mind. Oddly, Thiel never once mentions René Girard by name in this entire book. Yet it is soaked through with mimetic theory. Chapter 3 is where Thiel lays out his “Competition is for Losers” philosophy, which he articulated in an excellent lecture (link above) to students at Stanford. He speaks about the destructive power of rivalry and competition and the importance of striving to be a monopoly business. The business version of the “truth” question that he opens the book with is simply: what valuable company is nobody building? In perhaps the most Girardian chapter in the entire book, the last chapter (titled “The Founder’s Paradox”) explains why so many startup founders fall on an inversed normal distribution curve—in other words, most successful founders fall way outside the “norms” of society—and for this reason they are most easily worshipped and scapegoated. Zero to One is an excellent book for any entrepreneur to read and one of the only practical resources out there for applied mimetic theory. Check out Zero to One on Amazon.