Examining the mimetic theory of René Girard, this book investigates the development of society as a result of an original crime (a murder) that shaped the way the earliest humans organized the social structures we live with today - an analysis that reveals the dangerous structure of the most basic social relationships.
With attention to family relationships, A Genealogy of Social Violence sheds light on the processes by which the traditional nuclear family, through the mimetic behaviour of children, embeds violence into human desires and hence society as whole.
Challenging the thought of Girard and of Rawls in order to offer a new understanding of justice, this book suggests that in order to achieve a more peaceful society, what is required is not the self-defeating narrative of equality, developed in order to manage the violence engendered by our social institutions, but a reconceptualisation of the nuclear family structure.
A striking critique of modern society, which draws on religion, mythology, literature, history, philosophy and political theory, A Genealogy of Social Violence will be of interest to social and political theorists, as well as philosophers working in the area of contemporary social and European thought.
By:
Clint Jones
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781138274600
ISBN 10: 1138274607
Series: Classical and Contemporary Social Theory
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 07 December 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter 1 Framework; Chapter 2 Historical and Philosophical Context; Chapter 3 Girardian Mimetic Theory: Objections and Responses; Chapter 4 “Justice as Unfairness”: The Social Contracts of Girard and Rawls; Chapter 5 Mythologies of the Future: Justice, Mimesis, and Idyllic Hope; Chapter 6 Utopian Undercurrents: Undoing Mimesis in the Social Imagination; Chapter 7 Squaring the Triangle: Correcting the Girardian Theory of Mimesis;
Clint Jones is Instructor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University, USA.
Reviews for A Genealogy of Social Violence: Founding Murder, Rawlsian Fairness, and the Future of the Family
’In this ambitious and fascinating study Jones guides the reader through the theories of social violence in the work of Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud and Girard, producing a compelling critique of Rawls' contractual notion of justice. Weaving together the theoretical speculations of Girard and Marcuse with concrete social applications, Jones' work argues for nothing less than a fundamental transformation of family relations and a re-vitalisation of utopian thought.’ William Pawlett, University of Wolverhampton, UK