Movatterモバイル変換

In a relatively little-known interview, conducted by Thomas Bertonneau, Girard remarks that with Heidegger there is an aspect he "would almost call a worship of the old sacred," something that struck him as "pretty scary … sinister." But, almost in the same breath, Girard continues, "And yet there can be no doubt that Heidegger is a genius."1This doubled attitude to Heidegger, where on the one side the German philosopher is basically a hostile relic of the archaic sacred, and on the (...) other he has contributed something of genius to contemporary thought, has not been sufficiently examined among Girardians. The default position seems to be a dismissal on account of the former and an unwillingness to engage in respect... (shrink)

No categories

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark   2 citations  

Girardian anthropology tells us that the birth of human meaning and its signs are the result of a primitive catastrophe. But if these origins are exposed by the biblical record it is because another, transformative semiosis has opened in human existence. Girard’s seminal remarks on the Greek logos and the logos of John, endorsing Heidegger’s divorce of the two, demonstrate this claim and its source in the nonviolence of the gospel logos. In effect, there is a second catastrophe, one embedded (...) in the bible and reaching its full exposition in the cross, generating a new semiosis in humanity. The transformation may be measured by viewing the original semiosis in a Kantian frame, as a transcendental a priori structured by violence. The second catastrophe generates an equivalent new a priori of nonviolence. The work of Charles Peirce illustrates both the way in which interpretants (of signs) open us progressively to new meanings, and how this process may ultimately be conditioned by love. The catastrophe of the gospel, therefore, works both on the dramatic individual level, with Paul of the New Testament as the great example, but also in slow‑motion over semiotic history, changing the meaning of existence from violence to nonviolence. (shrink)

Direct download(2 more)   Export citation   Bookmark  

A theory of human origins that is one-half Charles Darwin and one-half Cain and Abel is bound to entail a lot of rethinking of traditional themes. Rene Girard's thesis of original human violence and the Bible's power to reveal it has been around for more than a generation, but its consequences for Christian theology are still only slowly being unpacked. Anthony Bartlett's book makes a signal contribution, representing an astonishing leap forward in understanding what a biblical disclosure of founding violence (...) means for Christian thought and life. If human language arose directly out of the primal experience of murder, then semiotics becomes a core area for theological examination. Tracing the discipline of semiotics through postmodern thinkers, then back through its birth in the Latin era, Bartlett shows how Girard's thought is itself a semiotic emergence, beyond standard Christian metaphysics. Above all, Girardian theory of human signs demands we see the generative impact of violence in our language and thought, and then, conversely, that the Word of God, crucified without retaliation and risen in the same identity, brings a totally new sign and relation into history, offering a thoroughgoing transformation of human life and meaning. (shrink)

No categories

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark  

The final term of postmodern philosophy and economics must be found in anthropology generated by the Christian logos of the cross, because only the cross maintains the human face of the victims of economics. The conclusion is demonstrated through merging of Epicurean philosophy with the political economy of Jean Baudrillard via the anthropology of desire developed by René Girard. Fusing together the first two viewpoints by means of the analytic power of the third provides the paradigm of an economic universe (...) constituted simultaneously by atomized humanity and chains of desire stretching from the poor world to the rich, transferring real material wealth to the latter. The simulacrum appears as true object of economics, but íf it is constituted by the swerve of desire, beginning with that extorted from the poor, then we derive a totalized postmodern Epicurean universe which is "sacred violence" entrapping poor and rich alike. /// O presente artigo pretende demonstrar que o termo último dafilosofia e da economia pós-moderna deve ser procurado na antropologia gerada pelo logos cristão da cruz, já que é apenas na cruz que se preserva o rosto humano das vítimas da economia. A conclusão é demonstrada através da confluência da filosofia epicurista com a economia política de Jean Baudrillard, confluência essa mediada pela antropologia do desejo desenvolvida por René Girard. Segundo o autor, fundindo os dois primeiros pontos de vista através do poder analítico do terceiro, encontraremos o paradigma de um universo económico constituido simultaneamente por uma humanidade atomizada e por cadeias desejantes que vão desde o mundo dos pobres até aos ricos, cadeias essas mediante as quais se procede à transferência de riqueza material para estes últimos. O simulacrum aparece como verdadeiro objecto da economia, mas na medida em que ele é constituído pela inflexão do desejo, a começar por aquilo que é extorquido aos pobres, o autor deriva um universo pósmoderno de feição epicurista cuja essência é a "violência sagrada" envolvente tanto dos pobres como dos ricos. (shrink)

Direct download   Export citation   Bookmark