Papers Session: Mimetic Theory, Social Order, and the Question of Identity
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
This session brings together two papers that examine how social and cultural boundaries are constructed, maintained, and challenged. The first paper explores mimetic theory in a prison context, focusing on dynamics of purity, exclusion, and the challenge of extending compassion to the most marginalized. The second paper reconsiders the Vattimo–Girard debate through the lens of Henza culture, highlighting how more fluid forms of identity (“loose ontology”) open new possibilities for rethinking gender, metaphysics, and the role of difference in social life.