Mimesis and Science: Empirical Research on Imitation and the Mimetic Theory of Culture and Religion

Preface

ix Preface In May 2002, an interdisciplinary group of scientists and philosophers gathered in Royaumont Abbey, France, for an unprecedented meeting of the “imitative minds.” The purpose of this four-day conference was to discuss an array of recent scientific breakthroughs concerning the enormous, yet profoundly overlooked role of imitation in human life. The disciplines represented were as diverse as child development, primatology, neurophysiology, social psychology, and philosophy of mind. The conference proceedings, which included nearly 50 contributors, were later published in a two-volume set that has since become the definitive collection on contemporary imitation theory and research1 —with one major exception. Decades before advances in the empirical sciences prompted a surge of interest in imitation, the French literary analyst and cultural theorist René Girard had already developed his own theory of imitation, or mimetic theory. Beginning in the early 1960s, Girard identified the generative role of imitation in human desire and motivation,2 including a profound understanding of the relationship between imitation, violence, and the origin and structure of human culture and religion.3 In fact, in March 2005 (the same month and year that the above volume on the science of imitation was published) Girard was inaugurated into the French Academy, an honor bestowed on him as a result of nearly 50 years of writing and research devoted to his overall argument that our great capacity for imitation is far and away the most important, yet least understood of all human abilities. It is therefore remarkable that the respective literatures on Girard’s mimetic theory, and the contemporary x Preface experimental research on human imitation have remained largely compartmentalized , with very little reference to, or even apparent awareness of, one another. Mimesis and Science, therefore, represents our initial attempt at establishing a relationship between these two groundbreaking fields of research. In doing so, we have brought together, for the very first time, some of the foremost scholars of Girard’s mimetic theory with leading imitation researchers in the cognitive and social sciences. Among the authors are many who have pioneered research in their own field and who have produced seminal works on imitation as a result. Additional authors are included whose work and disciplines intersect significantly with the implications of these areas of research. While not exhaustive, this volume provides an overview of some of the major findings and interpretations concerning human imitation across the diverse disciplines of developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology, comparative psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, literary analysis, and philosophy. Core themes include the ubiquitous, foundational, and paradoxical nature of imitation in human life, including its essential role in human development, cognition, culture, and religion. To be sure, there are many questions and areas of research that are left unanswered and unexplored. Regardless, our overall goal is to help initiate the process of cross-fertilization between mimetic scholars and empirical researchers so that significant links can continue to develop, encouraging new thinking, creative scholarship, future experimental research, and a more profound and encompassing view of the role of imitation in human life. The inspiration for this project came about while I was a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. While at Fuller, I came across Girard’s mimetic theory and the contemporary experimental research on human imitation almost simultaneously. My introduction to mimetic theory came from one of my mentors, Jim Steinwedell, who recommended a book based on Girard’s work after my repeated questioning about the nature of violence and religion in the modern world.4 My introduction to the experimental research came soon thereafter when my advisor, Warren Brown, presented an article to our neuropsychology research lab on the recent discovery of mirror neurons.5 This article led me further to explore what the empirical sciences had to say about human imitation. The more I became acquainted with Girard’s literary and anthropological theory, alongside the contemporary research on imitation in the sciences, the more compelling the subject of human imitation became and, to my great surprise, the more I found that practically nothing had been done to integrate these Preface xi overlapping areas of research. After publishing an initial article of my own, I concluded that bringing these scholars and researchers together themselves would be the best way to further this work.6 This project was made possible by a grant from the Metanexus Institute as a Templeton Advanced Research Program. The Girardian foundation, Imitatio: Integrating the Human Sciences later provided additional...