The Originary Hypothesis (Stanford version) — Chronicles of Love and Resentment

This is the text of a lecture delivered at the Thinking the Human conference, sponsored by the new Girardian association Imitatio, held at Stanford on November 15-16, 2010. My aim was to explain the originary hypothesis not so much to “Girardians” as to social scientists at least nominally intrigued by Girard’s mimetic theory. Although Generative Anthropology (GA) and its originary hypothesis are described on the Anthropoetics website and in various other publications, many people familiar with Girard’s work are unfamiliar with this material. This conference seems like a good opportunity to situate GA in relation to Girard’s thought and to clear up some misconceptions common among Girardians. Generative anthropology is sometimes accused of being a form of “social contract” theory rather than an authentic originary anthropology. Well, it depends what you mean by “social contract.” If we’re talking about Rousseau’s or Hobbes’ constructions, where such things as language and the normal at

This is the text of a lecture delivered at the Thinking the Human conference, sponsored by the new Girardian association Imitatio, held at Stanford on November 15-16, 2010. My aim was to explain the originary hypothesis not so much to “Girardians” as to social scientists at least nominally intrigued by Girard’s mimetic theory. Although Generative Anthropology (GA) and its originary hypothesis are described on the Anthropoetics website and in various other publications, many people familiar with Girard’s work are unfamiliar with this material. This conference seems like a good opportunity to si