CONFLICT, MIMETIC RIVALRY AND NONVIOLENCE: FRIENDSHIP AS AN ETHICAL HORIZON OF COEXISTENCE

Abstract

This article examines, from a philosophical perspective, the status of conflict in human relations and investigates to what extent nonviolence can interrupt the mimetic logic that converts difference into hostility. It starts from the hypothesis that conflict is an integral part of the relational condition of human beings and, therefore, cannot simply be eliminated from social life. The problem arises when it is captured by violent reciprocity and rivalry, producing forms of enmity that degrade the bond with the other. Based on bibliographic research, with a qualitative approach and theoretical-conceptual character, the text articulates contributions from Jean-Marie Muller, René Girard, Georg Simmel, Zygmunt Bauman, Norberto Bobbio, José Maria da Silva Rosa, and Leo Tolstoy. It argues that nonviolence does not mean passivity, but an ethical practice of resistance to violence without its reproduction. It concludes that friendship can be understood as an ethical horizon of coexistence, insofar as it allows us to think about relationships marked by responsibility, recognition, and the rejection of revenge.