Keywords
scapegoat
Popper
Simón Bolivar
Chávez
How to Cite
Abstract
Girard's theory about myths is clearly verifiable: there are plenty of myths where, in the midst of a sacrificial crisis, a victim is executed, social peace is reestablished, and the victim emerges as a god. But, it is doubtful that such a theory can be falsified: Girard himself has written that those myths where there is no violence, are also founded on the scapegoat mechanism, but community has erased any traces of violence. If we are to follow Popper's falsasionist criterion, then mimetic theory is not scientific. To illustrate this difficulty, I evaluate Hugo Chávez's recent theory according to which Simón Bolivar was murdered.
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