Bücher der Reihe Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers S.

Presenting an original global theory of culture, Girard explores the social function of violence and the mechanism of the social scapegoat. His vision is a challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion and psychoanalysis.

Writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, this book demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily experience.