French intellectual Rene Girard passed away

French intellectual Rene Girard, an academic fascinated in the causes of conflict who earned the nickname “the new Darwin“, died Wednesday in the US, Stanford University said. He was 91.

About  Rene Girard :

• Girard was an emeritus professor at Stanford University’s French and Italian department, where he taught for more than 30 years.
• Girard was especially interested in the causes of conflict and violence and the role of imitation in human behaviour.
• Girard was the author of nearly 30 books, which have been widely translated.
• They include “Deceit, Desire and the Novel” (1961), “Violence and the Sacred” (1972), and “Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World” (1978).
• His last major work was “Achever Clausewitz” (2007), which Stanford said was cited by then French president Nicolas Sarkozy.