Girard and Nietzsche's phenomenology of victims

• Authors: Duane Armitage

Abstracts

EN

In this paper I argue that Nietzsche and Girard provide, for the first time, a phenomenology and genealogical account of the victim as both an ontological and moral category. First, I lay out Girard’s mimetic theory and show how it culminates in a phenomenology of victims and victimization. I then turn to Nietzsche, in particular Girard’s consideration of Nietzsche as the most important theologian of recent past, to show that Girard’s phenomenology – of victims, violence, and scapegoating – already exists within Nietzsche’s philosophical framework, albeit with a significantly different interpretation. It is my hope to problematize the seemingly self-evident and axiomatic character of the category of the “victim” by highlighting its specific genealogy within the Judeo-Christian tradition in order to further a much broader discussion on the hermeneutics of violence in general.

Keywords

EN

Mimetic Theory; Girard; Nietzsche; Violence; Phenomenology

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Chrześcijańskiej Akademii Teologicznej w Warszawie
• Journal: Studia z Teorii Wychowania
• Year: 2023
• Volume: XIV(2 (43))
• Pages: 83-95

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Duane Armitage

• University of Scranton, USA

References

• Armitage, D. (2021). Philosophy’s Violent Sacred. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
• Girard, R. (2001). I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books.
• Girard, R. (1986). The Scapegoat (Baltimore, MD, The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Girard, R. (2014). When These Things Begin. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.
• Girard, R. (1988). To Double Business Bound. Baltimore, MD: The John’s Hopkins University Press.
• Judge, E. A. (1986). “The Question for Mercy in Late Antiquity,” in God Who is Rich in Mercy: Essays Presented to D.B. Knox, edited by P.T. O’Brien and D. G. Peterson. Sydney: Macquarie University Press.
• Nietzsche, F. (1989). On the Genealogy of Morals. New York: Vintage press, 1989.
• Nietzsche, F. (1968a). The Will to Power. Translated by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage.
• Nietzsche, F. (1968b). Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist, trans. R. J. Hollingdale. London: Penguin Books.
• Stark, R. (2011). The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion. New York: Harper Collins.

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0053.9074

Biblioteka Nauki

36797828