Notes on generative anthropology : towards an ethics of the hypothesis

Scholars in the human sciences (the arts, liberal thought, and the verstehen varieties of social sciences) are often called upon to supply new modes of thinking to meet the challenges of a post-Marxist, post-modern, even post-humanist world. A new cartography of methodological expectations and possibilities within the purview of these human sciences would now appear desirable. Never has the world of thought-about-thought been required to perform so much, and only rarely, regrettably, has it offered so little. An interesting exception to this is formed by a small group of thinkers inspired by the writing of René Girard and, among these, especially the author of Signs of Paradox, Eric Gans. This essay is not simply about Gans's specific hypothesis, but about a new version of the hypothesis per se. What follows is gathered by our attempt to explain its nature and to indicate its ethico-political place.