PHILOSOPHER

René Girard

1923 - 2015

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René Noël Théophile Girard (; French: [ʒiʁaʁ]; 25 December 1923 – 4 November 2015) was a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of philosophical anthropology. Girard was the author of nearly thirty books, with his writings spanning many academic domains. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of René Girard has received more than 1,747,379 page views. His biography is available in 37 different languages on Wikipedia. René Girard is the 365th most popular philosopher (down from 354th in 2019), the 1,003rd most popular biography from France (down from 999th in 2019) and the 48th most popular French Philosopher.

René Girard is most famous for his theory of mimetic desire. This theory states that all human desires are imitations of desires that we see in others.

Memorability Metrics

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    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 37

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.00

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.07

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, René Girard ranks 365 out of 1,267Before him are Wilhelm Windelband, Han Yu, Pompeia Plotina, Nachmanides, Stilpo, and Alexandre Koyré. After him are Alexandre Kojève, Ban Zhao, John Searle, Nasir Khusraw, Francis Hutcheson, and Jean Gerson.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1923, René Girard ranks 37Before him are Arvid Carlsson, Markus Wolf, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Anne Baxter, Nizar Qabbani, and Morris. After him are Jorge Semprún, Stjepan Bobek, Philip Warren Anderson, Alice Miller, Mauno Koivisto, and Erland Josephson. Among people deceased in 2015, René Girard ranks 47Before him are Yevgeny Primakov, Günter Schabowski, Colleen McCullough, James Last, Faten Hamama, and Frei Otto. After him are James Horner, Fatema Mernissi, Yves Chauvin, Benedict Anderson, Mathieu Kérékou, and Michele Ferrero.

Others Born in 1923

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Others Deceased in 2015

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In France

Among people born in France, René Girard ranks 1,003 out of 6,770Before him are Michèle Morgan (1920), Pierre-Charles Villeneuve (1763), Jacques Cassini (1677), Jacques Hadamard (1865), Jean Moulin (1899), and Georges Brassens (1921). After him are Pauline Viardot (1821), Leonard of Noblac (496), Alice Guy-Blaché (1873), Raymond Poulidor (1936), Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653), and Nicolas Chauvin (1790).

Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, René Girard ranks 48Before him are Henri Lefebvre (1901), Antoine Arnauld (1612), Félix Guattari (1930), Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857), Edgar Morin (1921), and Maurice Halbwachs (1877). After him are Jean Gerson (1363), Richard Avenarius (1843), Étienne Gilson (1884), Alain de Lille (1117), Étienne Cabet (1788), and Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais (1782).