Philosophy's Violent Sacred

Download Philosophy's Violent Sacred PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1628954205
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Philosophy's Violent Sacred by : Duane Armitage

Download or read book Philosophy's Violent Sacred written by Duane Armitage and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continental and postmodern thinking has misidentified the source of violence as originating from Western metaphysics. It has further failed to acknowledge the Judeo- Christian source of its ethic—the ethic of concern for victims. In this volume Duane Armitage attempts a critique of continental philosophy and postmodernism through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory. This critique is directed primarily at the philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger, both among the foremost representatives of continental and postmodern thought. Armitage argues that Girard’s engagement with Heidegger and Nietzsche radically alters many of the axioms of current postmodern continental philosophy, in particular the overcoming of metaphysics on the theoretical level and continental philosophy’s tacit commitments to (neo-)Marxism on the practical level. Detailed attention to the implications of Girard’s philosophical thought results in a paradigm shift that deals perhaps a deadly blow to continental and postmodern thinking. Armitage further argues that Girard’s thinking solves the very problems that continental and postmodern thinking sought (but failed) to solve, namely the problems of violence and victimization, particularly within the context of the aftermath of the Second World War. Ultimately, this volume shows that at the heart of postmodern thinking lies an entanglement with the violent sacred.

Violence and the Sacred

Download Violence and the Sacred PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 0826477186
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (264 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Violence and the Sacred by : René Girard

Download or read book Violence and the Sacred written by René Girard and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-04-13 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: René Girard (1923-) was Professor of French Language, Literature and Civilization at Stanford Unviersity from 1981 until his retirement in 1995. Violence and the Sacred is Girard's brilliant study of human evil. Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory>

René Girard's Mimetic Theory

Download René Girard's Mimetic Theory PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1609173651
Total Pages : 576 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis René Girard's Mimetic Theory by : Wolfgang Palaver

Download or read book René Girard's Mimetic Theory written by Wolfgang Palaver and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A systematic introduction into the mimetic theory of the French-American literary theorist and philosophical anthropologist René Girard, this essential text explains its three main pillars (mimetic desire, the scapegoat mechanism, and the Biblical “difference”) with the help of examples from literature and philosophy. This book also offers an overview of René Girard’s life and work, showing how much mimetic theory results from existential and spiritual insights into one’s own mimetic entanglements. Furthermore it examines the broader implications of Girard’s theories, from the mimetic aspect of sovereignty and wars to the relationship between the scapegoat mechanism and the question of capital punishment. Mimetic theory is placed within the context of current cultural and political debates like the relationship between religion and modernity, terrorism, the death penalty, and gender issues. Drawing textual examples from European literature (Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe, Kleist, Stendhal, Storm, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Proust) and philosophy (Plato, Camus, Sartre, Lévi-Strauss, Derrida, Vattimo), Palaver uses mimetic theory to explore the themes they present. A highly accessible book, this text is complemented by bibliographical references to Girard’s widespread work and secondary literature on mimetic theory and its applications, comprising a valuable bibliographical archive that provides the reader with an overview of the development and discussion of mimetic theory until the present day.

The Mark of the Sacred

Download The Mark of the Sacred PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804788456
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Mark of the Sacred by : Jean-Pierre Dupuy

Download or read book The Mark of the Sacred written by Jean-Pierre Dupuy and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of religion and violence “forces us to reexamine some of our most cherished self-images of modern liberal democratic societies” (Charles Taylor). Jean-Pierre Dupuy, prophet of what he calls “enlightened doomsaying,” has long warned that modern society is on a path to self-destruction. In this book, he pleads for a subversion of this crisis from within, arguing that it is our lopsided view of religion and reason that has set us on this course. In denial of our sacred origins and hubristically convinced of the powers of human reason, we cease to know our own limits: our disenchanted world leaves us defenseless against a headlong rush into the abyss of global warming, nuclear holocaust, and the other catastrophes that loom on our horizon. Reviving the religious anthropology of Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Marcel Mauss and in dialogue with the work of René Girard, Dupuy shows that we must remember the world’s sacredness in order to keep human violence in check. A metaphysical and theological detective, he tracks the sacred in the very fields where human reason considers itself most free from everything it judges irrational: science, technology, economics, political and strategic thought. In making such claims, The Mark of the Sacred takes on religion bashers, secularists, and fundamentalists at once. Written by one of the deepest and most versatile thinkers of our time, it militates for a world where reason is no longer an enemy of faith. “The Mark of the Sacred is one of those rare books . . . which, in an enlightened well-organized state, should be printed and freely distributed in all schools!” —Slavoj Žižek

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

Download Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 0826468535
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (264 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by : René Girard

Download or read book Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World written by René Girard and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting an original global theory of culture, Girard explores the social function of violence and the mechanism of the social scapegoat. His vision is a challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion and psychoanalysis. Rene Gerard is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature and Civilization at Stanford University, USA.

Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith

Download Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231520417
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith by : Gianni Vattimo

Download or read book Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith written by Gianni Vattimo and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-16 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debate over the place of religion in secular, democratic societies dominates philosophical and intellectual discourse. These arguments often polarize around simplistic reductions, making efforts at reconciliation impossible. Yet more rational stances do exist, positions that broker a peace between relativism and religion in people's public, private, and ethical lives. Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith advances just such a dialogue, featuring the collaboration of two major philosophers known for their progressive approach to this issue. Seeking unity over difference, Gianni Vattimo and René Girard turn to Max Weber, Eric Auerbach, and Marcel Gauchet, among others, in their exploration of truth and liberty, relativism and faith, and the tensions of a world filled with new forms of religiously inspired violence. Vattimo and Girard ultimately conclude that secularism and the involvement (or lack thereof) of religion in governance are, in essence, produced by Christianity. In other words, Christianity is "the religion of the exit from religion," and democracy, civil rights, the free market, and individual freedoms are all facilitated by Christian culture. Through an exchange that is both intimate and enlightening, Vattimo and Girard share their unparalleled insight into the relationships among religion, modernity, and the role of Christianity, especially as it exists in our multicultural world.

Battling to the End

Download Battling to the End PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1609171330
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Battling to the End by : René Girard

Download or read book Battling to the End written by René Girard and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Battling to the End René Girard engages Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831), the Prussian military theoretician who wrote On War. Clausewitz, who has been critiqued by military strategists, political scientists, and philosophers, famously postulated that "War is the continuation of politics by other means." He also seemed to believe that governments could constrain war. Clausewitz, a firsthand witness to the Napoleonic Wars, understood the nature of modern warfare. Far from controlling violence, politics follows in war's wake: the means of war have become its ends. René Girard shows us a Clausewitz who is a fascinated witness of history's acceleration. Haunted by the French-German conflict, Clausewitz clarifies more than anyone else the development that would ravage Europe. Battling to the End pushes aside the taboo that prevents us from seeing that the apocalypse has begun. Human violence is escaping our control; today it threatens the entire planet.

The One by Whom Scandal Comes

Download The One by Whom Scandal Comes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1628950161
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The One by Whom Scandal Comes by : René Girard

Download or read book The One by Whom Scandal Comes written by René Girard and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Why is there so much violence in our midst?” René Girard asks. “No question is more debated today. And none produces more disappointing answers.” In Girard’s mimetic theory it is the imitation of someone else’s desire that gives rise to conflict whenever the desired object cannot be shared. This mimetic rivalry, Girard argues, is responsible for the frequency and escalating intensity of human conflict. For Girard, human conflict comes not from the loss of reciprocity between humans but from the transition, imperceptible at first but then ever more rapid, from good to bad reciprocity. In this landmark text, Girard continues his study of violence in light of geopolitical competition, focusing on the roots and outcomes of violence across societies latent in the process of globalization. The volume concludes in a wide-ranging interview with the Sicilian cultural theorist Maria Stella Barberi, where Girard’s twenty-first century emphases on the continuity of all religions, global conflict, and the necessity of apocalyptic thinking emerge.

The Sacrality of the Secular

Download The Sacrality of the Secular PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231545231
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sacrality of the Secular by : Bradley B. Onishi

Download or read book The Sacrality of the Secular written by Bradley B. Onishi and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a bold and historically rooted vision for the future of philosophy of religion, The Sacrality of the Secular maps new and compelling possibilities for a nonsecularist secularity. In recent decades, philosophers in the continental tradition have taken a notable interest in the return of religion, a departure from the supposed hegemony of the secular age that began with the Enlightenment. At the same time, anthropologists and sociologists have begun to reject the once-dominant secularization thesis, which both prescribed and described the demise of religion in modern societies. In The Sacrality of the Secular, Bradley B. Onishi reconsiders the role of religion at a time when secularity is more tenuous than it might seem. He demonstrates that philosophy’s entanglement with religion led, perhaps counterintuitively, to vibrant reconceptions of the secular well before the unraveling of the secularization thesis or the turn to religion. Through rich readings of Heidegger, Bataille, Weber, and others, Onishi rethinks what philosophy can contribute to our understanding of religion and the wider social and cultural world.

Sacred Violence

Download Sacred Violence PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472022946
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sacred Violence by : Paul W. Kahn

Download or read book Sacred Violence written by Paul W. Kahn and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2009-09-23 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Sacred Violence, the distinguished political and legal theorist Paul W. Kahn investigates the reasons for the resort to violence characteristic of premodern states. In a startling argument, he contends that law will never offer an adequate account of political violence. Instead, we must turn to political theology, which reveals that torture and terror are, essentially, forms of sacrifice. Kahn forces us to acknowledge what we don't want to see: that we remain deeply committed to a violent politics beyond law. Paul W. Kahn is Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights. Cover Illustration: "Abu Ghraib 67, 2005" by Fernando Botero. Courtesy of the artist and the American University Museum.

Mimesis and Science

Download Mimesis and Science PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1609172388
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mimesis and Science by : Scott R. Garrels

Download or read book Mimesis and Science written by Scott R. Garrels and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting compendium brings together, for the first time, some of the foremost scholars of René Girard’s mimetic theory, with leading imitation researchers from the cognitive, developmental, and neuro sciences. These chapters explore some of the major discoveries and developments concerning the foundational, yet previously overlooked, role of imitation in human life, revealing the unique theoretical links that can now be made from the neural basis of social interaction to the structure and evolution of human culture and religion. Together, mimetic scholars and imitation researchers are on the cutting edge of some of the most important breakthroughs in understanding the distinctive human capacity for both incredible acts of empathy and compassion as well as mass antipathy and violence. As a result, this interdisciplinary volume promises to help shed light on some of the most pressing and complex questions of our contemporary world.

A Secular Age

Download A Secular Age PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674986911
Total Pages : 889 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Secular Age by : Charles Taylor

Download or read book A Secular Age written by Charles Taylor and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.

Rene Girard

Download Rene Girard PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Polity
ISBN 13 : 9780745629476
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (294 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rene Girard by : Chris Fleming

Download or read book Rene Girard written by Chris Fleming and published by Polity. This book was released on 2004-09-03 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the work of Rene Girard, thought by many to be one of the most important, if controversial, cultural theorists of the twentieth century. Girard's work is extraordinarily innovative and wide-ranging, cutting across central concerns in philosophy, psychoanalysis, literary theory, anthropology, theology, and sociology. In this much-needed introduction, Chris Fleming traces the development of Girard's thought over forty years, describing the context in which he worked and his influence on a number of disciplines. He unpacks the hypotheses at the centre of Girard's thought - mimetic desire, surrogate victimage and scapegoating, myth, ritual, and the sacred - and provides an assessment of Girard's place in the contemporary academy. Comprehensive and clearly written, this book constitutes an excellent overview of Girard's work and is essential reading for students and researchers in continental philosophy, theology, literary studies, French studies, and cultural studies.

René Girard, Unlikely Apologist

Download René Girard, Unlikely Apologist PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN 13 : 0268100888
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (681 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis René Girard, Unlikely Apologist by : Grant Kaplan

Download or read book René Girard, Unlikely Apologist written by Grant Kaplan and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2016-08-20 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late 1970s, theologians have been attempting to integrate mimetic theory into different fields of theology, yet a distrust of mimetic theory persists in some theological camps. In René Girard, Unlikely Apologist: Mimetic Theory and Fundamental Theology, Grant Kaplan brings mimetic theory into conversation with theology both to elucidate the relevance of mimetic theory for the discipline of fundamental theology and to understand the work of René Girard within a theological framework. Rather than focus on Christology or atonement theory as the locus of interaction between Girard and theology, Kaplan centers his discussion on the apologetic quality of mimetic theory and the impact of mimetic theory on fundamental theology, the subdiscipline that grew to replace apologetics. His book explores the relation between Girard and fundamental theology in several keys. In one, it understands mimetic theory as a heuristic device that allows theological narratives and positions to become more intelligible and, by so doing, makes theology more persuasive. In another key, Kaplan shows how mimetic theory, when placed in dialogue with particular theologians, can advance theological discussion in areas where mimetic theory has seldom been invoked. On this level the book performs a dialogue with theology that both revisits earlier theological efforts and also demonstrates how mimetic theory brings valuable dimensions to questions of fundamental theology.

The Sacred and the Political

Download The Sacred and the Political PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1628925981
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Sacred and the Political by : Elisabetta Brighi

Download or read book The Sacred and the Political written by Elisabetta Brighi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the relationship between the sacred and the political, transcendence and immanence, religion and violence? And how has this complex relation affected the history of Western political reason? In this volume an international group of scholars explore these questions in light of mimetic theory as formulated by René Girard (1923-2015), one of the most original thinkers of our time. From Aristotle and his idea of tragedy, passing through Machiavelli and political modernity, up to contemporary biopolitics, this work provides an indispensable guide to those who want to assess the thorny interconnections of sacrality and politics in Western political thought and follow an unexplored yet critical path from ancient Greece to our post-secular condition. While looking at the past, this volume also seeks to illuminate the future relevance of the sacred/secular divide in the so-called 'age of globalization'.

The Ground of the Image

Download The Ground of the Image PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Fordham University Press
ISBN 13 : 0823238466
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Ground of the Image by : Jean-Luc Nancy

Download or read book The Ground of the Image written by Jean-Luc Nancy and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If anything marks the image, it is a deep ambivalence. Denounced as superficial, illusory, and groundless, images are at the same time attributed with exorbitant power and assigned a privileged relation to truth. Mistrusted by philosophy, forbidden and embraced by religions, manipulated as “spectacle” and proliferated in the media, images never cease to present their multiple aspects, their paradoxes, their flat but receding spaces. What is this power that lies in the depths and recesses of an image—which is always only an impenetrable surface? What secrets are concealed in the ground or in the figures of an image—which never does anything but show just exactly what it is and nothing else? How does the immanence of images open onto their unimaginable others, their imageless origin? In this collection of writings on images and visual art, Jean-Luc Nancy explores such questions through an extraordinary range of references. From Renaissance painting and landscape to photography and video, from the image of Roman death masks to the language of silent film, from Cleopatra to Kant and Heidegger, Nancy pursues a reflection on visuality that goes far beyond the many disciplines with which it intersects. He offers insights into the religious, cultural, political, art historical, and philosophical aspects of the visual relation, treating such vexed problems as the connection between image and violence, the sacred status of images, and, in a profound and important essay, the forbidden representation of the Shoah. In the background of all these investigations lies a preoccupation with finitude, the unsettling forces envisaged by the images that confront us, the limits that bind us to them, the death that stares back at us from their frozen traits and distant intimacies. In these vibrant and complex essays, a central figure in European philosophy continues to work through some of the most important questions of our time.

Evolution of Desire

Download Evolution of Desire PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1628953306
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Evolution of Desire by : Cynthia L Haven

Download or read book Evolution of Desire written by Cynthia L Haven and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2018-04-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: René Girard (1923–2015) was one of the leading thinkers of our era—a provocative sage who bypassed prevailing orthodoxies to offer a bold, sweeping vision of human nature, human history, and human destiny. His oeuvre, offering a “mimetic theory” of cultural origins and human behavior, inspired such writers as Milan Kundera and J. M. Coetzee, and earned him a place among the forty “immortals” of the Académie Française. Too often, however, his work is considered only within various academic specializations. This first-ever biographical study takes a wider view. Cynthia L. Haven traces the evolution of Girard’s thought in parallel with his life and times. She recounts his formative years in France and his arrival in a country torn by racial division, and reveals his insights into the collective delusions of our technological world and the changing nature of warfare. Drawing on interviews with Girard and his colleagues, Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard provides an essential introduction to one of the twentieth century’s most controversial and original minds.