Mimetic Theory

The Elon Musk versus. Sam Altman trial in regard to OpenAI was more revealing than the non-verdict verdict.  Musk's testimony gives all of us an insider's look at what is on his mind.  It raises serious assertions that have been the subject of dystopian science fiction, but right now that science fiction seems to be translating into real life.  Caution: The Future is now.

Is it actually such an easy thing to know oneself? Was it some simpleton who inscribed those words on the temple wall at Delphi?' 1 'You shall see gods for yourself, Orual. […] There must be a way.' 2 In his memoir, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis recounts a pivotal conversation with Owen Barfield and Bede Griffiths. Lewis was hosting the two men for lunch in his rooms at Oxford, and their conversation turned to topics philosophical. Lewis taught literature but had studied philosophy as an undergraduate and remained actively interested in the subject, and that is how he viewed philosophyas a subject. When Lewis referred to it as such, Barfield replied, 'It wasn't a subject to Plato, […] it was a way.' 3 Lewis notes the effect this remark had on him: 'The quiet but fervent agreement of Griffiths, and the quick glance of understanding between these two, revealed to me my own frivolity.' 4 Lewis describes this exchange as a turning point in his own religious conversion. He had been playing with big philosophical and religious questions, and Barfield's remark made him realize his investigations were not truly serious. The time for change had come. It was time to live the truth. Lewis was not alone in thinking of philosophy like this. We moderns tend to think of philosophy as an academic subject. In antiquity, however, the various

This essay examines the complex relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity and his own philosophy of suffering, affirmation, and existential transformation. Although Nietzsche explicitly rejects Christian morality, transcendence, and metaphysical redemption, his philosophy retains structural similarities to Christian understandings of suffering and spiritual testing. The essay argues that Nietzsche does not remove suffering from philosophical reflection, but radically reinterprets it after the collapse of transcendence.

The analysis begins with Nietzsche’s distinction between Jesus and institutional Christianity and proceeds to an examination of suffering within Christian theology. Christianity interprets suffering through redemption, providence, and salvation, whereas Nietzsche seeks to understand suffering as an unavoidable condition of life, growth, and self-overcoming. This reinterpretation reaches its highest expression in Amor Fati and eternal recurrence, where Nietzsche demands affirmation of existence without appeal to metaphysical consolation.

Particular attention is given to the relationship between Nietzsche and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Both thinkers regard suffering as central to human existence and both reject superficial rationalism and utilitarian optimism. Yet Dostoevsky ultimately preserves a Christian horizon of redemption, while Nietzsche attempts to construct a tragic philosophy of affirmation grounded entirely within immanent existence.

The essay concludes that Nietzsche should not be understood simply as an opponent of Christianity, but as a profoundly post-Christian thinker who transforms the existential grammar of Christianity into a secular philosophy of suffering and affirmation. The Cross disappears as theological guarantee, yet its shadow remains visible in Nietzsche’s demand that human beings affirm existence completely, even under the conditions of suffering and eternal recurrence.

Platoncu sistemde sanatın gayesinin ne olduğu sorusunu cevaplandırmak, Platoncu sistem ile ilişkili farklı birkaç soruyu cevaplandırmayı gerekli kılmaktadır. Bu sorulardan ilki sanat eserinin doğasının ne olduğu sorusudur. Doğa, gayenin üzerine inşa edildiği temel olarak kabul edilmelidir. Platon, sanatın mimesis olduğunu ifade eder. Ancak mimesis, kelime anlamının düşündürdüğünün aksine kabaca kopyadan ibaret değildir. Mimesis, Platoncu sistemde sanatçının kendisine ideayı örnek olarak eserini yaratması ve sanatçının elinde bir hakikatin inkişaf etmesi manasına gelmektedir. İdeayı değil de somut bir nesneyi örnek alarak eserini yaratan sanatçı hakikatten iki derece uzaklaştığı için eseriyle beraber Platon'un devletinden kovulmuştur. Yalnızca iyinin, doğrunun ve güzelin hakiki bilgisine muttali erdemli sanatçı eserini yaratırken ideayı örnek alacaktır. Erdemli sanatçının eseri erdeme dair olacaktır; çünkü eser esasında sanatçının edindiği doğruluk ve ölçülülük ilkelerinin inkişaf etmiş halidir. Erdemli sanatçının erdeme dair eseri muhatabını da erdemli olmaya teşvik ederek kişiyi ve toplumu dönüştürecektir. Sanatın kişiyi ve toplumu dönüştürme gücü, Platon'un sanat eserine gençlerin eğitiminde önemli bir yer tahsis etmesine zemin hazırlamıştır. Ahlak eğitiminde bir araç olarak kullanılması, Platoncu sistemde sanatın işlevine karşılık gelmektedir. Bu çalışma sanat eserinin gayesinin ne olduğu sorusunu doğa ve işlev kavramları çerçevesinde cevaplandırmaya çalışacaktır.

Contemporary paradigms of security and threat-management often prioritize hyper-vigilance and hyper-optimization, demanding continuous, error-free cognitive processing from human actors. This paper interrogates the psychological and existential sustainability of such models. Utilizing the metaphor of continuous surveillance (e.g., the "gold shop" security paradigm) and contrasting it with cinematic depictions of invulnerable protagonists, this preprint argues that biological systems are fundamentally ill-equipped for sustained hypervigilance. I propose that psychological survival necessitates the construction of multilayered, automated frameworks for cognitive offloading. By engineering systems that tolerate "messiness"-incorporating margins of error, leniency, and redundancy-we mitigate systemic fragility. Ultimately, this paper posits that the freedom to make errors is not merely a systemic inefficiency, but a core philosophical requisite for authentic human existence.

field of the human sciences and contemporary philosophy. It identifies its filiations, maps its productive dialogues, names its necessary ruptures, and formulates the distinctive displacement it introduces. It constitutes the academic reference document for the ongoing research programme. I. THE FOUNDING GESTURE: THE HUMAN BEING AS BEING OF RESPONSE Every paradigm is born from a gesture-a displacement of the gaze that reconfigures what one sees and what one can think. The founding gesture of the anthropology of interpellation is the following: to substitute for the question what is the human being? the question under what conditions can the human being respond freely to what calls it? This displacement is not trivial. It breaks with the dominant presupposition of modern anthropologies, which think the human subject in terms of what it produces, what it desires, what it thinks, or what it undergoes. It proposes instead to think the subject in terms of what it responds to-and the conditions under which this response is possible.

This work presents the Crowd-Based Dynamics (CBD) framework as a unified approach to the study of complex adaptive systems and collective dynamics.

The corpus examines how systems emerge, stabilize, saturate, and transform through processes of accumulation, propagation, interaction, and constrained governability. Rather than focusing on isolated events, the framework analyzes dynamic regimes, thresholds, and structural transitions.
Particular attention is given to perception, information dynamics, temporal effects, collective coherence, adaptation, and regime transformation. The study introduces concepts such as mimetic propagation, informational tipping, temporal governability, and conditional reversibility as mechanisms shaping systemic evolution.

Organized as a modular and progressive corpus, the work provides a common analytical language applicable to social, informational, financial, technological, and collective systems.

The CBD framework is proposed as a structural reading operator designed to understand transformation processes and limits of governability across domains.

Das Beste ist die tiefe Stille, in der ich gegen die Welt lebe und wachse und gewinne, was sie mir mit Feuer und Schwert nicht nehmen können." (Goethe, Tagebücher, 13. Mai 1780) "Daß, wenn die Stille kehrt, auch eine Sprache sei." (Hölderlin, Friedensfeier) "Nun haben aber die Sirenen eine noch schrecklichere Waffe als den Gesang, nämlich ihr Schweigen. Es ist zwar nicht geschehen, aber vielleicht denkbar, daß sich jemand vor ihrem Gesang gerettet hätte, vor ihrem Schweigen gewiß nicht. Dem Gefühl, aus eigener Kraft sie besiegt zu haben, der daraus folgenden alles fortreißenden Überhebung kann nichts Irdisches widerstehen." (Kafka, Das Schweigen der Sirenen)

Thorsten Botz-Bornstein proposes that conspiracist worldviews are often adopted due to the “the desire to find apparently reasonable explanations for phenomena that are purely random and contingent” (p. 1). His philosophical analysis focuses on contingency and necessity. There is evidence that human evolutionary psychology seeks causes for effects and is distressed by epistemic uncertainty. Botz-Bornstein notes that conspiracy is a problematic term, and includes both warranted and unwarranted theories, and in fact conspiracist thinking has an aesthetic dimension which means many adopt them “simply because they like them” (p. 4). Because philosophy does not proceed on a case-by-case basis, it is possible to see “groundless
conspiracy theories as something more akin to art” (p. 16). Botz-Bornstein is therefore interested in the people who adopt them and promote them. An important aesthetic preference for the conspiracy mindset is “contingency refusal” (p. 24). The author’s refusal to consider the content of conspiracy theories works; to say the earth is flat is false but to ask why people hold flat-earther beliefs is more interesting.

Članak je diplomska radnja iz estetike (kod prof. Danil Pejovića) na studiju filozofije Filozofskog fakulteta u Zagrebu.  Obranjena 1972.
U radu se razmatra problem "oponašanja", kako se pokazuje vezano za izum film. Prate se različiti pristupi oponašanju, Platonov i Aristotelov, Arnheimov i Bazinov, te se pokušava riješiti problem kako može "mehanička reprodukcija"  postati domenom čovjekova stvaralaštva.

The American Dream, which is highly regarded in American culture, is based on the belief that anyone, regardless of their background, can achieve wealth and success through hard work, determination, and pure ambition. In fictional narratives, this dream is paradoxically portrayed to highlight the inherent struggle of the ideal. Both Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) provide critical insights into the illusion of this dream and the tragic repercussions of adhering to such an ideal. This paper concentrates on these two texts and how they aim to dismantle the myths surrounding the American Dream. By examining its contradictions, shortcomings, and failures, while focusing on the characters and their personal lives, relationships, and the social dynamics influencing their existence, the researchers have constructed and analyzed the primary argument regarding how these works critique the American Dream and the idea of nationalism that transcends borders. Through the complexities and dilemmas associated with the American Dream, the realities faced by Gatsby and Loman have been revealed-their profound tragedies intertwined with the broader American tragedy.

This paper examines Joseph Margolis’s argument in The Importance of Being Earnest about the Definition and Metaphysics of Art, focusing on the relation between defining art and understanding its metaphysical status. Rejecting both essentialist definitions and the post-Wittgensteinian dismissal of the issue, Margolis argues that artworks should be understood as historically situated and culturally emergent entities. He maintains that the question “What is art?” cannot be separated from broader concerns regarding interpretation, historicity, and human cultural practices. The article thus reopens the debate on art by grounding aesthetics within a wider philosophical framework.

Keywords: definition of art; metaphysics of art; aesthetics; cultural emergence; interpretation.

Эта вторая часть углубляет анализ посредством исследования поведенческого мимикрии (поведенческого подражания). Нарративная структура используется для иллюстрации того, как воспроизводятся паттерны травмы и власти, анализируя связь между психикой зрителя и развитием персонажей. Это необходимое продолжение для понимания социального и психологического измерения ущерба, задокументированного в первой части.

La relación entre las obras filosóficas y las obras literarias de Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi ha sido destacada desde numerosas perspectivas. La propuesta de este trabajo es analizar una de las novelas escritas por Jacobi, Woldemar, con los conceptos elaborados por René Girard en su libro Mentira romántica y verdad novelesca. La teoría mimética girardiana, que —hasta donde sabemos— aún no ha sido utilizada para un estudio sustancial del pensamiento de Jacobi, puede aportar una nueva comprensión de las problemáticas trabajadas por el autor alemán. La hipótesis que se pretende demostrar es que la novela Woldemar está estructurada por lo que Girard denomina “mediación interna”. Las mediaciones internas entre Woldemar, Henriette y Allwina (tres personajes de la novela) no se redimen, sin embargo, en lo que Girard denomina “conversión”. La mediación interna entre Woldemar y Henriette sí atraviesa un proceso cercano a la conversión, pero, según se intentará demostrar, el personaje de Allwina no pierde su rol de mediadora interna. Un análisis girardiano de la novela Woldemar permite vincular la crítica jacobiana del nihilismo con una exposición literaria de lo que, en términos de Girard, se denomina “trascendencia desviada”.

The link between the philosophical works and the literary works written by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi has been emphasised repeatedly and from many different perspectives. The aim of this paper is to analyse one of Jacobi's novels, Woldemar, with the concepts elaborated by René Girard in his book Deceit, Desire, and the Novel. Girardian mimetic theory, which —as far as we know— has not yet been employed for a substantial study of Jacobi's thought, can provide a new understanding of the issues explored by the German author. The hypothesis we intend to demonstrate is that the novel Woldemar is structured by what Girard calls ‘internal mediation’. The internal mediations between Woldemar, Henriette and Allwina (three characters of the novel) are not, however, redeemed in what Girard calls ‘conversion’. The internal mediation between Woldemar and Henriette does indeed go through a process close to conversion, but, as we will try to show, Allwina's character does not lose her role as an internal mediator. A Girardian analysis of the novel Woldemar makes it possible to link Jacobi's distinctive critique of philosophical nihilism with a literary exposition of what, in Girard's terms, is called ‘deviated transcendency’.

Tanto en Fichte como en Schelling la noción de reflexión va asociada con la de imitación. Para analizar tal vínculo, la teoría mimética de Girard ofrece una perspectiva adecuada a la rigurosidad de la filosofía clásica alemana. Creemos que las filosofías de Fichte y Schelling presentan conceptualmente aquello que Girard llamó “mediación interna” (imitación entre sujetos cuyos campos de acción coinciden plenamente). También sostenemos que Fichte y Schelling compensan el fuerte carácter mimético de su teoría de la intersubjetividad negando aquello que Girard llamaba “mímesis de apropiación”. En la intersubjetividad idealista, el objeto mediado por un sujeto, en lugar de ser miméticamente deseado por otro, es el factor gracias al cual se separan los campos de acción entre los individuos (separación que Girard considera ya imposible en un mundo regido por la mediación interna). Para Girard, sólo la conversión —el rechazo de toda imitación interhumana— nos libra del mal mimetismo.

In both Fichte and Schelling the notion of reflection is linked to that of imitation. In order to analyse such a link, Girard's mimetic theory offers a perspective that matches the rigour of classical German philosophy. We believe that the philosophies of Fichte and Schelling conceptually present what Girard called ‘internal mediation’, characterised by imitation between subjects whose fields of action fully overlap. At the same time, we argue that Fichte and Schelling counterbalance the strong mimetic feature of their theory of intersubjectivity by denying what Girard called ‘acquisitive mimesis’. In idealistic intersubjectivity, the object mediated by a subject, instead of being mimetically desired by another, is the factor thanks to which the fields of action between individuals are separated (a separation that Girard considers impossible in a world ruled by internal mediation). For Girard, only conversion - the rejection of all inter-human imitation - frees us from bad mimesis.

Fichte y Girard sobre religión, conciencia y la cosa muerta Fichte and Girard on Religion, Consciousness and the Dead Thing Resumen A pesar de que René Girard se ha expresado duramente en contra de la filosofía y, especialmente, del llamado «idealismo alemán», en los últimos años hubo interpretaciones de su obra en conexión con la filosofía clásica alemana. Proponemos aquí una lectura de la teoría mimética girardiana en conjunción con la filosofía de Johann Gottlieb Fichte, cosa que, hasta donde sabemos, no ha sido ensayada. La dimensión que opera como punto de partida para tal lectura conjunta es la religiosa. A partir de allí, podremos destacar similitudes estructurales entre el primer principio de la filosofía de Fichte (el Yo=Yo) y la teoría mimética y, a la vez, mostrar la diferente cristología en juego en ambos autores. Creemos que el acercamiento entre la doctrina de la ciencia fichteana y la teoría mimética girardiana puede ser provechoso para ambas perspectivas.

Although René Girard has harshly opposed philosophy and especially so-called «German idealism», in recent years there have been interpretations of his work in connection with classical German philosophy. We propose here a reading of Girardian mimetic theory in conjunction with the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, an approach that, as far as we know, has not been tried. The dimension that works as a starting point for such a combined reading is the religious dimension. From there, we will be able to highlight structural similarities between the fi rst principle of Fichte's philosophy (the I=I) and the mimetic crisis and, at the same time, to show the diff erent Christology at play in both authors. We believe that the rapprochement between the Fichtean doctrine of science and Girardian mimetic theory can be fruitful for both perspectives.

This second part delves deeper into the analysis through the study of behavioral mimicry. It uses narrative structure to illustrate how patterns of trauma and power are replicated, analyzing the connection between the viewer's psyche and the characters' development. It is a necessary extension for understanding the social and psychological dimensions of the harm documented in the first part.

Esta segunda parte profundiza en el análisis mediante el estudio del mimetismo conductual. Se utiliza la estructura narrativa para ilustrar cómo se replican los patrones de trauma y poder, analizando la conexión entre la psique del espectador y el desarrollo de los personajes. Es una extensión necesaria para comprender la dimensión social y psicológica del daño documentado en la primera parte.

Shared narratives and value systems play a fundamental role in the formation of authentic relationships, particularly when built upon collaboration and openness towards the Other. Steinbeck's fourth novel and first critical success, Tortilla Flat (1935), offers a promising study in hermeneutical mimesis as it relates to literary friendships, while underscoring the permutational aspects of the symmetry that characterize Paisano togetherness. The friends participate in the Aristotelian sharing of life, whereby parity is preserved in order to pursue common goals, thus avoiding a potential fracturing of their circle due to rivalries or antagonism.

The Ground You Stand On Is a Lie. This Is the Map of the Cage.
For half a century, psychology has formalized models of human social cognition built on the Relational-Simulative Mode (RSM), which establishes by fiat Theory of Mind, empathy, critical thinking, and discernment as a prosocial default operating system.
This 50-year neurophenomenological audit documents that this human is a third-order simulacrum. The real, operative default is the Heuristic-Operational Mode (HOM): a predatory-pragmatic protocol that overrides declarative intent and categorically snapshots others. It operates not without a theory of mind, but via a theory of self over the other.
The researcher, equipped with a panmodal aphantasic/anendophasic (unbuffered) cognitive architecture, served as a calibrated instrument across four national contexts—from Ceaușescu’s Romania to the market economies of Italy and England. The result is a forensic ledger of approximately 8,000 interactions, revealing a 99% prevalence of HOM in public and private life.
This is not a study of individual pathology. It is the diagnosis of a systemically reinforced sociopathology. The paper synthesizes critical theory, mimetic theory, and existential phenomenology to argue that our social and economic systems are machines that produce HOM subjects, rewarding predation and tacitly holding in contempt relationality. Mainstream models perpetuate epistemic violence by upholding the RSM as a descriptive fact while pathologizing the lived experience of HOM dominance.
This work declares a state of civilizational regression and demands a paradigm shift: we must stop trying to fix broken individuals and start diagnosing the pathogenic system that breaks them.
This is not a theory. It is the map of the territory, drawn from a lifetime spent inside it.

This work presents a complete corpus dedicated to the reformulation of the double-slit experiment under a memory-constrained observability framework. By integrating UCQ, DUAL, and CBD, it defines observation as a non-Markovian process dependent on memory, observability, and contextual dynamics. The corpus develops a progressive structure from foundational hypotheses to full mathematical closure and experimental validation. It introduces memory as a structural variable, continuous observability, transformation operators, and threshold-driven regime dynamics. Within the CBD framework, the system follows accumulation, saturation, tipping, and stabilization processes, linking quantum behavior to complex adaptive systems. The model produces testable predictions, including hysteresis, order dependence, and threshold effects, while remaining compatible with standard quantum mechanics in limiting cases. It establishes a unified, coherent, and falsifiable framework for understanding observability as a structured dynamic process.

Quelle était l'attitude de René Girard à l'égard de la philosophie ? Quels philosophes l'ont influencé ? Comment a-t-il pris position au sein des débats philosophiques de son temps ? À quelles formes d'interrogations philosophiques l'anthropologie de René Girard conduit-elle ? Dans cet entretien, Paul Dumouchel tente d'apporter un éclairage à ces questions.

The integration of local and indigenous perspectives into history education is crucial for fostering cultural understanding and engagement. This study examines the impact of mimetic pedagogy on localizing and indigenizing history subjects in public schools. It investigates the effectiveness of mimetic pedagogy, exploring the methods used, the benefits and challenges encountered, and the impacts on students' understanding and engagement with local and indigenous history. Using a descriptive qualitative method, eight master teachers in social studies were selected through purposive sampling and interviewed based on their expertise and experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data. The study found that mimetic pedagogy effectively localizes and indigenizes history subjects. Teachers use methods such as storytelling and community engagement, which enhance student interest and cultural understanding. While challenges such as limited resources exist, the benefits include improved critical thinking and deeper engagement with local history. Overall, mimetic pedagogy significantly enhances students' understanding and appreciation of their cultural heritage.

Literature and psychoanalysis are two scientific domains that seem to extent ad infinitum since their main interest is the understanding of a world in its totality: the textual world and the world of the psyche respectfully. Nonetheless, the boundaries between these two worlds are becoming more and more vague and inseparable. The division between the so called "real" and "imaginary" world is argued not to be so firm and stable anymore. There are literary characters "designed" to act like real persons; real persons pretending to live as "bookish" ones.

There is no sudden transformation that is not preceded by a long invisible process. What appears as a rupture is never the starting point of change, but the moment when it can no longer remain implicit. Before it is perceived, every tipping point is already underway. It does not emerge; it reveals itself. In complex systems, and particularly in collective dynamics, this transformation takes on a specific form. It does not result from a lack, but from an excess. It is not the absence of coherence that produces rupture, but its accumulation beyond a certain point. What ensured stability gradually becomes what limits it. This silent and progressive transition corresponds to what can be described as mimetic saturation. Any system capable of sustaining itself over time relies on mechanisms of alignment. Behaviors converge, perceptions stabilize, and decisions tend to reproduce according to compatible patterns. This convergence does not arise from conscious imitation, but from structural necessity. It allows the system to reduce uncertainty, coordinate its actions, and maintain internal coherence. Without this mimetic dynamic, no lasting stability would be possible. In an initial phase, this repetition produces an organizing effect. Trajectories become readable, interactions adjust more easily, and the system gains efficiency. What is already established is reinforced, what is compatible is reproduced, and what diverges tends to be corrected or absorbed. Coherence increases as discrepancies diminish. The system appears stable, not because it does not change, but because it is able to integrate variations without losing its balance. However, this dynamic cannot continue indefinitely without altering its own conditions. As behaviors, perceptions, and decisions are repeated, they progressively reduce the diversity of possible configurations. What was open becomes oriented, what was multiple becomes selected. The system gains coherence, but loses flexibility. It becomes increasingly capable of reproducing what it already knows, and increasingly incapable of integrating what it does not yet know.

This paper introduces a unified theoretical framework integrating memory, accumulation, and structural limits in complex adaptive systems. It defines memory M(t) as a non-Markovian operator governing system evolution, stability, and observability.  The framework formalizes the transformation of informational accumulation Σ(t) into structured memory, shaping system trajectories over time. It establishes the canonical ratio Λ(t) as a measure of systemic saturation, linking accumulation, capacity Aψ(t), temporal constraints F(t), and effective memory M_eff(t). Instability is defined as an endogenous structural outcome emerging when Λ(t) reaches the critical threshold Λc. The SMOT framework explains how memory stabilizes systems through persistence and coherence, while also acting as a driver of instability under saturation. It formalizes regime transitions as threshold-dependent processes.  Within the CBD framework, memory corresponds to mimetic memory governing collective amplification and persistence. The model integrates key CBD laws, including mimetic saturation, informational tipping, temporal governability, and conditional reversibility. It demonstrates structural equivalence across physical, cognitive, collective, and computational systems.  The framework provides a closed and coherent structure for analyzing stability, transitions, and observability. This work establishes a foundational bridge between theoretical formalization and empirical analysis in complex systems.

Este trabalho visa trazer a lume pesquisas realizadas nos lavrados roraimenses a partir dos relatos de Alfred Russel Wallace, no livro: A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1853). Wallace, co-autor da teoria da seleção natural, narra sobre os estrangeiros que viviam na cidade da Barra do Rio Negro, atual cidade de Manaus, capital do Amazonas, sendo três alemães e um jovem surdo norte-americano, de nome Baker, que tinha a pretensão de seguir até Demerara, pelo rio Branco, e regressar aos Estados Unidos. Baker foi educado junto com Laura Bridgman para se tornar professor. No regresso a sua terra natal, ele foi atacado pelo chamado "duende da Amazônia" e seus aliados vindo a falecer em 1850, na fortaleza de São Joaquim do Rio Branco. Conduzimos pesquisas de campo e bibliográficas sobre os exploradores e naturalistas que atuaram na Amazônia no final do século XIX. Além disso, buscamos informações em instituições de ensino para surdos nos Estados Unidos, com o objetivo de descobrir mais sobre a vida do jovem norte-americano Baker. Ele se destacou como um pioneiro de sua época, dedicando sua vida à busca da práxis da educação especial.

Este trabalho visa trazer a lume pesquisas realizadas nos lavrados roraimenses a partir dos relatos de Alfred Russel Wallace, no livro: A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1853). Wallace, co-autor da teoria da seleção natural, narra sobre os estrangeiros que viviam na cidade da Barra do Rio Negro, atual cidade de Manaus, capital do Amazonas, sendo três alemães e um jovem surdo norte-americano, de nome Baker, que tinha a pretensão de seguir até Demerara, pelo rio Branco, e regressar aos Estados Unidos. Baker foi educado junto com Laura Bridgman para se tornar professor. No regresso a sua terra natal, ele foi atacado pelo chamado "duende da Amazônia" e seus aliados vindo a falecer em 1850, na fortaleza de São Joaquim do Rio Branco. Conduzimos pesquisas de campo e bibliográficas sobre os exploradores e naturalistas que atuaram na Amazônia no final do século XIX. Além disso, buscamos informações em instituições de ensino para surdos nos Estados Unidos, com o objetivo de descobrir mais sobre a vida do jovem norte-americano Baker. Ele se destacou como um pioneiro de sua época, dedicando sua vida à busca da práxis da educação especial.

Discussions of personal relationships focus overwhelmingly on amicable types: those characterized by cooperation, affection, or even love. Yet some relationships are instead marked by competition, non-cooperation, or outright hostility. This chapter analyzes the nature and value of two paradigmatic forms of adversarial relationship: rivalry and enmity. We offer systematic accounts of what it is to have a rival or an enemy. Rivalry, we argue, involves extended serious competition over personal goods, structured by a rivalrous stance focused on defeating one's competitor. Enmity involves posing persistent, serious non-cooperative threats, coupled with inimical stances ranging from hatred to strategic indifference. The chapter explores whether these relationships are always personally and morally problematic, or whether they can have positive value. While rivalry can promote excellence and self-understanding when properly constrained, enmity's orientation toward non-cooperative interference typically invites moral corruption and escalation. We examine what morality demands regarding enmity resolution, considering various paths from reconciliation to mere modus vivendi. Throughout, we highlight how adversarial relationships differ fundamentally from amicable ones in their self-sustaining character: while amicable relationships involve stances oriented toward preserving the relationship itself, adversarial relationships focus elsewhere—on achieving contested goods or responding to threats. These insights illuminate not only paradigmatic adversarial relationships but also the adversarial elements that can emerge within initially amicable ones.

Every so often a monograph appears that refuses to sit obediently on the shelf assigned by disciplinary librarians, insisting instead on wriggling sideways, sliding between categories, and daring its interlocutors to follow the trail of conceptual excess it leaves in its wake. Nir Kedem’s A Deleuzian Critique of Queer Thought: Overcoming Sexuality belongs squarely in that unruly lineage (Kedem, 2024). The book proposes nothing less than a philosophical jailbreak from the very abstraction of sexuality, an abstraction that has long structured and, in Kedem’s view, strait‑jacketed the field of queer studies. Readers of the Journal of Bisexuality, accustomed to demonstrating how fluid attachments undo monosexual binaries, will recognize a kindred impulse; yet Kedem goes further by arguing that even the term sexuality can become a conceptual cul‑de‑sac, blocking the lines of flight necessary for a truly experimental politics of desire.

The act of counterfeiting, exemplified in Dante's portrayal of Master Adam (Canto XXX, Inferno discussed in Lacan's session XII, Seminar XIII), is a sin that transcends mere fraud; it is a manipulation of space as reality, creating it as a deceptive space. The counterfeit coin, laced with alloys, mirrors the weight of gold but not its inherent value-an act akin to the original sin of Adam, who, in consuming the fruit of knowledge, introduced a perpendicular deviation from truth: The true essence of the world as the undivided ONE. This metaphor extends into the very nature of language and currency, where to "lie" involves embedding untruth within a golden facade, creating a simulacrum that deceives through appearance rather than substance. The three carats of gold that Master Adam used to coat the counterfeit florins create an illusion of authenticity. This illusion, however, is nothing more than a reflection-a mirror of value that, like a mirage, appears real but fails to satisfy thirst, which itself as a demand is an image of water's whatness. This reflects the anagrammatic relationship between 'mirage' and 'image,' underscoring how both are deceptive reflections of the same unattainable Thing. The counterfeit coin thus becomes a mirror stage, not just in the Lacanian sense of misrecognition, but as a space where truth is displaced, appearing there (Da) rather than here (Da), in a manner reminiscent of the camouflage tactics described by Roger Caillois.1 In his exploration of mimicry and legendary psychasthenia, Caillois articulates a theory of space where organisms, in their bid for survival, assimilate into their surroundings. This act of camouflage is not just a defensive mechanism but a profound ontological shift-a temptation by space that blurs the boundaries between the self and the environment. The insect becomes a leaf, the crab a stone, in a process that is as much about aesthetics as it is about survival. This mimicry, however, carries a hidden cost: the dissolution of the self, the erosion of personality, and the reduction of life to a mere reflection-a phantom that exists only in the mirrored space of the other. This brings us back to the counterfeit coin and the mirror stage. Just as the insect camouflages itself, so too does the coin disguise its lack of true value as its true value. Yet, in doing so, it undergoes a topological transformation-it moves from being a mere object to an entity that exists within the flow of currency, teleporting its false value across space and time.

ARTEMIS II revela la pequeñez humana frente a un planeta sin fronteras. La diversidad es riqueza, pero el ego convierte la diferencia en conflicto y rompe la convivencia. La ceguera intelectual alimenta teorías absurdas y facilita la manipulación. La verdadera misión no es conquistar otros mundos, sino aprender a convivir en este. El egoísmo sigue siendo la última barrera de la humanidad.

We are the first generation in history to outsource our beliefs and desires to an algorithm. In 'Borrowed Minds,' I explore why we’ve traded deep, original thinking for endless scrolling. Using philosophy to explain our modern digital habits, I break down the 'Input-Output Trap' and show how we’ve been trained to copy others instead of finding ourselves. This isn't just about social media; it’s about reclaiming our ability to think for ourselves in a world that wants us to blend in.

We are the first generation in history to outsource our beliefs and desires to an algorithm. In 'Borrowed Minds,' I explore why we’ve traded deep, original thinking for endless scrolling. Using philosophy to explain our modern digital habits, I break down the 'Input-Output Trap' and show how we’ve been trained to copy others instead of finding ourselves. This isn't just about social media; it’s about reclaiming our ability to think for ourselves in a world that wants us to blend in.

In the following pages, we defend what might strike some as a surprising thesis, namely, that the view of culture and human relations embedded in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer , which ran from 1997 to 2003, coincides with key elements of the theory of mimetic desire and human violence elaborated by René Girard. We first show how one pivotal episode of the series, Season Two's "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (2.16), dramatically and metaphorically illustrates key elements of Girard's theory, after which we will examine the narrative arc of Season Five, showing how the transformation of rivalrous mimesis into positive mimesis and an ethical response to the other is dramatized in the relationship of Buffy Summers to her newly arrived little sister Dawn Summers.

Omiaha Kindom Unsung explores the history and heritage of the Omiaha people in South Sudan. The work aims to document historical and cultural details of the Omiaha (a subgroup of the Lopit people) that the author argues were overlooked by past travelers, missionaries, and anthropologists.
The title suggests that the "kingdom" of the Omiaha of Lopit has remained "unsung" or unacknowledged in mainstream historical records, and the book seeks to "reclaim [their] place in history.

Imagine a work of science fiction that invents no new technology, no alien world. Its novum is not a faster-than-light drive but a reconfiguration-taking scattered ideas from anthropology, cybernetics, psychology, and literary theory (binds, double binds, schismogenesis, mimetic desire, feedback loops) and fitting them together into a coherent lens. This re-puzzling creates a cognitive estrangement: the familiar world of politics, relationships, and conflict suddenly appears governed by a hidden machinery of constraints and loops you may not have fully named before. This book invites you to see that machinery at work-not to replace the familiar with something alien, but to show the alien already living inside the familiar, waiting to be recognized.

This article examines, from a philosophical perspective, the status of conflict in human relations and investigates to what extent nonviolence can interrupt the mimetic logic that turns difference into hostility. It begins from the hypothesis that conflict belongs to the relational condition of the human being and therefore cannot simply be eliminated from social life. The problem emerges when conflict is captured by violent reciprocity and rivalry, producing forms of enmity that degrade the bond with the other. Based on bibliographical research with a qualitative and theoretical-conceptual approach, the text brings into dialogue Jean-Marie

se que a não violência não significa passividade, mas uma prática ética de resistência à violência sem sua reprodução. Conclui-se que a amizade pode ser compreendida como horizonte ético da convivência, na medida em que permite pensar relações marcadas por responsabilidade, reconhecimento e recusa da vingança.

This paper offers an overview of my ongoing three-volume project that explores the disguised return of pre-literary practices in literary masterpieces, including: expelling a scapegoat in a purification ritual, immuring a "human pillar" in a construction ritual, and projecting the bilateral structure of the human body onto artifacts, of which geometrical pottery is the most striking example. Following an Introduction that traces the evolution of this return -- beginning with "The Iliad," continuing with "Oedipus The King" and "Hamlet" and concluding with "Waiting for Godot" -- the Table of Contents is in the form of nine bilaterally organized chapters that discuss its persistence in selected masterpieces of twentieth-century literature.