Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

Published: Oct. 26, 2020, 8 a.m.

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is a profound, but also very challenging text. Girard is trying to do nothing less than create a Copernican revolution that merges historical agency, metaphysics, psychology, and anthropology into a combined construct. \u2019Things Hidden\u2019 is Girard\u2019s most famous work on Mimetic Theory. Mimetic Theory\u2019s key insight is that human desire is not an autonomous process, but a collective one. We want things because other people want them. As more and more people want something and when that \u201cthing\u201d remains scarce, there is conflict. Most conflict then is not because humans want different things, but because they want the same thing. An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis.

This podcast focuses on self-exploration and personal identity -- to help you construct who you are, and how you want to feel, think, believe, and behave for yourself. Check out our gratitude challenge for the month of November at bigselfschool.com/gratitude.