Is There a Difference Between Physical and Metaphysical Desire?

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Memetic theory is the consequence of our social nature. Gerard postulated that there are two kinds of human desire, physical and metaphysical. We make associations with objects by choosing models which we already think have a heightened being. Modernity generally has two answers to this question: reason or romanticism.

When the 20-year-old overachiever Johnathan Bi's first startup crashed and burned, he headed to a Zen retreat in the Catskills to "debug himself." He discovered René Girard and his mimetic theory--the idea that imitation is a key and often unconscious driver of human behavior. Listen as entrepreneur and philosopher Bi shares with EconTalk host Russ Roberts what he learned from Girard and Girard's insights into how we meet our primal need for money, fame, and power. The conversation includes the contrasts between economics and Girard's perspective.