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Scott R. Garrels, ed. Mimesis and Science: Empirical Research on Imitation and the Mimetic Theory of Culture and Religion. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-61186-023-8 (Pbk). Pp. xii + 259.
This volume, developed from the editor's observation that humanities and scientific scholars who are studying the phenomenon and implications of imitation-despite areas of resonance in their research-had rarely brought their insights into conversation. A process of dialogue began in 2002 when philosophers and scientists met in France to discuss their mutual interests and to produce a significant set of conference proceedings. However, those conversations failed to focus on the contributions of René Girard and Girardian thinkers to mimetic theory, religion, culture, and violence. With the purpose of remedying this gap in the literature and generally improving academic understandings of imitation, Scott Garrels secured funding for three conferences in the US and France (2007-8), which brought together scholars working on Mimetic Theory with other academics engaged in empirical research on imitation. Notably, thinkers already bridging the gap between these fields of study and Girard were in attendance at all three events. Mimesis and Science is one result of those conferences.
With an introduction, nine individually-authored chapters, and an interview with Girard, this edited volume serves to amplify Girardian themes, mainly by discussing them in relation to recent...