Demystifying the Negative René Girard’s Critique of the “Humanization of Nothingness”

Andreas Wilmes

doi:10.35765/forphil.2019.2401.04

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.

Highlights

Ever since the revival of Hegelianism in France in the 1930s, the concept of the negative has been much debated
Bataille contends, the German philosopher included the negative in a rational discourse aimed at the reconciliation of opposites. 4. In his very first book, René Girard wrote that “The Negative which so many modem philosophers identify with freedom and life is in reality the herald of slavery and death.” 5 In this paper, I aim to address his critique of the negative, which I take to be most enlightening and highly novel
Regarding Western philosophy, we may for instance notice that the underground psychology of rivalrous imitation will become the blind spot of the modern ethics of “enlightened self-interest.”

Summary

Introduction

Ever since the revival of Hegelianism in France in the 1930s, the concept of the negative has been much debated. Regarding Western philosophy, we may for instance notice that the underground psychology of rivalrous imitation will become the blind spot of the modern ethics of “enlightened self-interest.” mankind’s obsession with models-turned-obstacles is diametrically opposed to the idea that holds that advancing the interests of the group and serving one’s own interests go hand in hand.

Results

Conclusion