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Document Details : Title: De fenomenologie van René Girard Author(s): DUYNDAM, Joachim Journal: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie Volume: 81 Issue: 2 Date: 2019 Pages: 233-253 DOI: 10.2143/TVF.81.2.3286766 Abstract : This article attempts to position the thinking of the French-American literary scholar René Girard (1923-2015) in relation to the 20th century phenomenological tradition since Edmund Husserl. It is argued, more specifically, that Girard’s central ideas are in line with the post-Husserlian critics of intentionality, i.e. of Husserl’s ‘idealistic’ interpretation of intentionality – as it is shown by Paul Ricoeur in his famous article on 'Phenomenology and Hermeneutics'. To that end, Girard’s so-called mimetic theory is first briefly explained (§1). Subsequently, the kind of knowledge this mimetic theory provides is examined, highlighting the narrative nature of this knowledge and the hermeneutical way in which this knowledge is acquired (§2). Hence it is concluded that the mimetic desire or interest that is at the basis of Girard’s mimetic theory can be interpreted from a presupposed triangular intentionality. In line with the post-Husserlian phenomenological tradition, though still in accordance with Husserl’s principles, the triangular intentionality can be understood as the primarily presumed condition of possibility of the knowledge of mimetic theory, and of mimetic desire itself. |
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