Demystifying the Negative René Girard’s Critique of the “Humanization of Nothingness”
Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 24 (1):91-126 (2019)
Abstract
This paper will address René Girard’s critique of the “humanization of nothingness” in modern Western philosophy. I will first explain how the “desire for death” is related to a phenomenon that Girard refers to as “obstacle addiction.” Second, I will point out how mankind’s desire for death and illusory will to self-divinization gradually tend to converge within the history of modern Western humanism. In particular, I will show how this convergence between self-destruction and self-divinization gradually takes shape through the evolution of the concept of “the negative” from Hegel to Kojève, Sartre and Camus. Finally, we shall come to see that in Girard’s view “the negative” has tended to become an ever-preoccupying and unacknowledged symptom of mankind’s addiction to “model/obstacles” of desire.Author's Profile
ISBN(s)
1426-1898
DOI
10.35765/forphil.2019.2401.04
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References found in this work
Portrait of René Girard as a Post-Hegelian: Masters, Slaves, and Monstrous Doubles.Andreas Wilmes - 2017 - Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence 1 (1):57-85.
René Girard and the Legacy of Alexandre Kojève.George Erving - 2003 - Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 10 (1):111-125.
The place of René Girard in contemporary Philosophy.Guy Vanheeswijck - 2003 - Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 10 (1):95-110.