Triangles All the Way Down: The Ubiquity of Mimesis in Life and Literature (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798466683738)

I envisioned this book as a sort of layman's introduction to mimetic theory-a theory of imitation that has run like a bright thread through the history of Western thought since Plato. Until modern times, it was the province of philosophy and theology, but since the 1960s, when René Girard published the first of his books on the subject, the theory has attracted intense scholarly interest throughout the humanities, particularly in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, literary theory, and theories of religion. In the mid-nineties, mirror neurons were discovered, giving mimetic theory a firm footing in neuroscience. So, why should any of this matter? The answer is that mimetic theory-a theory of mediated, or triangular, desire-has vast implications for humanity's understanding of itself.