The Moral Imagination
Ep. 48 Jonathan Bi: Rene Girard - Social Pressure, True and False Desires, Sacrifice, and Belief
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Gerard emphasizes the need for a universal rejection of violence to achieve peace, challenging traditional just war theory.
- Progressive totalitarianism misusing victim protection rhetoric can lead to oppression and hypocrisy, delegitimizing core Christian values.
- Gerard rejects utopian progress, believing the struggle between good and evil lies within individuals, not external solutions.
- Gerard's Catholic faith underpins his views on violence and hope, advocating for a tempered optimism in the intrinsic goodness of humanity.
Deep dives
Gerard's Unorthodox View on Violence and Apocalypse
Gerard expresses a belief that the only way to prevent an apocalypse is for everyone to unilaterally renounce violence, not just violent initiation, but also violent reciprocation. This perspective challenges traditional just war theory and emphasizes a radical renouncement of violence to achieve peace.
Progressive Totalitarianism's Perversion of Protecting Victims
Gerard warns against progressive totalitarianism co-opting the message of protecting victims to persecute others, leading to hypocrisy and a delegitimization of the core Christian message of victim protection. He highlights the dangers of using victim-centric rhetoric to justify oppressive behavior.
Gerard's Skepticism Towards Utopian Progress
Gerard's skepticism towards utopian progress aligns with a Catholic perspective that the line between good and evil runs through the human heart, not from external factors. He rejects the notion that technical solutions or societal advancements can solve the inherent human struggle with sin and evil.
Gerard's Heterodox View and Catholic Affirmations
Gerard's unorthodox views on violence and apocalypse, combined with his rejection of utopian ideals, align with his Catholic faith that affirms the goodness of being and the tempering of hope in Jesus Christ as the ultimate deliverer. His skepticism towards societal solutions reflects a deep-rooted belief in the intrinsic goodness of humanity and the limitations of worldly progress.
Influence of Christian Nature on Pessimism and Dark Human Nature
The episode delves into the alignment of Gerard's pessimistic view with a Thomistic, Catholic perspective. It explores the idea that Gerard's dark human nature reflects a deeper understanding rooted in the Christian view of nature.
Discussion on Violence and Just War Theory
The conversation touches upon the concept of violence and just war theory, highlighting Gerard's perspective on the potential for renunciation of violence as a solution in the worldly context, juxtaposed with the statistical implausibility.
Exploration of Goodness of Being in Christianity
The podcast episode navigates through the Christian belief in the goodness of being, drawing on Christian scriptures to showcase the gradation of being and the divine affirmation of existence. It also contrasts this affirmation with Buddhist perspectives.
Comparative Analysis of Christian Atonement and Girardian Philosophy
The episode discusses the differences between Christian atonement and Girardian philosophy, addressing how Girard's insights showcase a humanistic language and psychological concepts, while Christian beliefs emphasize a personal encounter with Christ and the transformative power of his sacrifice.
In this episode I speak with Jonathan Bi about the ideas of Rene Girard, social pressure, authentic and false desires, victims and scapegoats, persecution, and Girardian theories on imitation and violence. We also discuss how Girard’s work sheds light on woke capitalism, right and left totalitarianism, Max Scheler, Hannah Arendt, Alexis de Tocqueville, and more. We discuss many themes including:
-
Christianity and Girard’s theory and the secularization and falsification of Christian values such as how humanitarianism and pacificism replace charity and peace and justice and more.
-
Evangelical Counsels and The Rule of St. Benedict as a response to metaphysical desire
-
Different views of the problem of evil: Hegel, Rousseau, Ratzinger, Solzhenitsyn, Girard
-
Human Perfectibility and Utopianism
-
Hope and Progress
-
Benedict XVI Spe Salvi
-
On the goodness of being in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and St. Augustine.
-
There is no technical solution to the problems of evil, suffering, of death
-
Embedded complexity, the dignity of labor, linear time, and how we live in a Christian civilization
-
Girard’s explanation of how scapegoating others for their behavior reveals that we too would be guilty — and why it is folly to think with confidence that we would not go along with the crowd if we lived under the Nazis or a slaveholding society
We begin a discussion on the atonement, Girard’s views and how to think about sacrifice — that we’ll have to finish in more detail
We also have a discussion about Christianity and Buddhism and religious belief. I hope you enjoy.
Biography
Jonathan Bi is an entrepreneur working on a startup in FinTech and a philosopher focusing on Buddhist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and specifically the work of Rene Girard. Among his many projects he and David Perell have created a seven session video course on the ideas of Rene Girard. Originally from China, Jonathan also grew up in Canada, and studied computer science at Columbia.
Resources
Jonathan Bi and David Perell Lectures on Girard
On the Atonement — we just got into this briefly, but didn’t have enough time or preparation to address it sufficiently. I am going to have another episode on the atonement, and also on Girard and the atonement, but here are two links to Catholic resources view of the atonement
Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
