For Girard, a post-Darwinian account of humanity must somehow combine the gradualism of Darwinian evolution with the essentialism of the pre-Darwinians.

This is an interpretation of René Girard's thought (from Thiel's 2007 essay). Judge it against Girard's own writings (e.g. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Violence and the Sacred, Evolution and Conversion) and scholarly commentary on them. TRUE: Girard explicitly or clearly argues that an account of human origins (hominization) must be gradual and evolutionary, while also holding that there is a distinct human essence or break (e.g. the founding murder or scapegoat mechanism producing culture), so that 'combining gradualism with essentialism' is a fair summary. MOSTLY TRUE: Girard holds both elements but does not frame them as a required synthesis, so the wording is somewhat Thiel's gloss. MIXED: Girard clearly holds one element (e.g. an evolutionary, gradual hominization) but his support for the other is ambiguous or disputed among commentators. MOSTLY FALSE: the summary rests on something Girard says but distorts it, e.g. he rejects essentialism or rejects gradualism. FALSE: Girard's work contradicts both elements or never deals with human origins in these terms.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (Queen's University Library QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   “The nature of desire gives us sufficient theoretical grounding to begin to look at what kinds of behaviours and practices we could expect to find taking place in the time before the symbolic world of humans had been opened”

2. E2 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (Queen's University Library QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   “If we take the scapegoat mechanism seriously, as the origin of religion and culture, then there are interesting consequences of mapping it onto the various religious traditions that we have available to us today.”

3. E3 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (Queen's University Library QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   “If Girard is fundamentally right about the place of the scapegoat in the origins and founding of human culture”

4. E4 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   ““[mimetic theory is] a Darwinian theory of culture because it proposes a dynamic, shows an evolution and gives a universal explanation of culture.” (EC 96)”

5. E5 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   “It is through this mechanism that we can reveal the hidden motives behind the first human cultural institutions, and also understand how our own interdividual communities are stitched and held together in the present.”

6. E6 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   “The nature of desire gives us sufficient theoretical grounding to begin to look at what kinds of behaviours and practices we could expect to find taking place in the time before the symbolic world of humans had been opened”

7. E7 An appeal for the consideration of the Mimetic Theory of René Girard Queen's University (QSpace), MA thesis by Craig C. Stewart · June 2013

   “While the theory, I believe, is sound, the movements are made far too quickly, and it might easily leave the reader dizzied as to how we got from the imitative and appropriative nature of human social interaction to the Virgin Birth of Christ.”

8. E8 René Girard’s Science of Religion: The Scapegoat Mechanism, Prefrontal Synthesis, and Collective Intentionality in the Process of Hominization Zygon (zygonjournal.org); author not named on the fetched text · 26 July 2024

   “Girard begins by stressing that “the process of the emergence of cultural elements” has “no absolute beginning” and is “extremely complex and progressive” (Girard 2008, 97).”

9. E9 René Girard’s Science of Religion: The Scapegoat Mechanism, Prefrontal Synthesis, and Collective Intentionality in the Process of Hominization Zygon (zygonjournal.org); author not named on the fetched text · 26 July 2024

   ““The only thing an animal needs to become human is the surrogate victim” (Girard 1987, 102).”

10. E10 René Girard’s Science of Religion: The Scapegoat Mechanism, Prefrontal Synthesis, and Collective Intentionality in the Process of Hominization Zygon (zygonjournal.org); author not named on the fetched text · 26 July 2024

    “As a consequence, and because I am able to benefit from later developments in neuroscience, in this article I argue that his emphasis on the scapegoat mechanism as it stands may well be untenable.”

11. E11 Evolutionary Thought Before Darwin Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · 17 June 2019

    “The “strong essentialist” position often attributed to Aristotle and Scholasticism (Hull, 1965), is demonstrably a product of later historical developments”

E8 quotes Girard saying the emergence of cultural elements has "no absolute beginning" and is "extremely complex and progressive", and E4 quotes a description, cited as EC 96, of mimetic theory as "a Darwinian theory of culture" that "shows an evolution". Both support the gradualist half. E9 quotes Girard (1987, 102): "The only thing an animal needs to become human is the surrogate victim." E2 and E5 present the scapegoat mechanism as the origin of culture. Together these support a distinct human threshold, the essentialist half. None of the evidence shows Girard framing the two as a synthesis that must be achieved, so that wording appears to be Thiel's gloss, which fits the "mostly true" criterion.