In this monograph Horsthemke provides a philosophically robust account of knowledge and refutes the idea of knowledge being premised on multiple truths. I am a proponent of his model on what should...

Masculinity and manhood ideologies remain a serious theological concern in the context of South Africa and the continent of Africa. The masculinity ideology perceives femaleness as a symbol to be lower than maleness and thereby uses this as a strategy to dominate and oppress women. While the oppression and domination of women is experienced in many parts of African society, such experiences also exist within the church walls. The androcentric culture creates an unbalanced theology which then brings the entire discourse (...) of theologisation into question. As this article grapples with these issues, it employs Mercy Oduyoye’s African women theology, particularly the model of ‘partnership between women and men’ in ministry, to reflect and respond to the issues raised. It further argues that as long as African women are subjected to oppression and domination by ideologies that are adiaphora, Oduyoye’s liberative hermeneutics remain relevant and necessary for doing inclusive theology in Africa. Contribution: While the article grapples with African women theologies within a theological terrain, the implications of the outcome are multidisciplinary as they aim to respond to challenges of oppression, masculinity and manhood ideologies that women face in their daily life. (shrink)

Constructive leaders highlight elements of motivation to employees to grow in order to achieve goals for their institutions or departments. They do this either through understanding the significance of ethical leadership or servant leadership. However, people who work under toxic environments often have little or no choice but drop their energy levels and be completely demoralised because of the toxicity at their workplace. This includes stories of leaders who ridicule their employees in public, force employees to undergo physical and psychological (...) pains, and promote divisiveness between colleagues. As the article focuses on leadership, and toxic leadership that is destructive not only for the workplace but also for human relationship, it argues for a need of ethical leadership which creates a dynamic relationship and trust between a leader and those led. The article concludes by stating that there is a relationship between ethical leadership and employee performance, and that this is very important for academic institutions.Contribution: Although the article reflects on the notion of leadership and its toxicity in an academic environment, the implications of the outcome are multidisciplinary, as ethical leadership is necessary in all human institutions. (shrink)

The study investigated postgraduate students’ knowledge of plagiarism, forms of plagiarism they commit, the reasons they commit plagiarism and actions taken against postgraduate students who plagiarise at Mzuzu University in Malawi. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. The quantitative data were collected by distributing questionnaires to postgraduate students and academic staff whereas qualitative data were collected by conducting follow-up interviews with some academics, an assistant registrar and assistant librarian. The study found that despite students reporting that they had a (...) conceptual understanding of plagiarism, the majority of them reported that they had intentionally and unintentionally committed plagiarism, mainly due to pressure for good grades (86.7%), laziness and poor time management (84.9%), and lack of good academic writing skills (84.9%). The study also established that prevalent forms of plagiarism admitted (by students) and reported (by academic staff) to have been committed included lack of proper acknowledgement after paraphrasing (69.8%), summarising (64.1%) and using quotation marks (56.6%). The study further found that the common sanctions applied by academics include giving a warning and asking the student to re-write the plagiarised work. The study recommends that Mzuzu University should carry out awareness campaigns about the negative effects of plagiarism, targeting postgraduate students; and should introduce advanced academic writing skills training for postgraduate students. (shrink)

Mador ʻinyene teshuvah -- Mador ʻinyene ha-moʻadim -- Mador maʻalot ha-Torah -- Mador ʻinyene emunah -- Mador Torah u-maʻalote' -- Mador ʻinyene ha-musar ṿe-tiḳun ha-midot -- Mador zikhron ḳedoshim -- Mador be-shule ha-mesilah.

This article investigates the contribution of white liberal politics of an ex-missionary New Zealander, Sir Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd, on the development of Southern Rhodesia towards becoming an independent state. It outlines the contribution he made towards the progress of black Zimbabweans in a number of spheres. It arouses interest in contemporary Zimbabwean religious and political discourses. Todd held a hybridity of roles in transitional politics from the blunting settler racism to the sharpening of African capability on multi-racial democracy important (...) for our debate on the decolonisation of southern Africa. He was a rhetorically gifted radical paternalist who adopted reformist policies to advance both the African cause and his prophetic vocation. He suggested technocratic solutions that could reorganise and diversify political and economic options.CONTRIBUTION: This study uses critical discourse analysis on the wider literature on Todd's biography and African policies in view of his Christian vocation towards changing conditions of socio-economic, political-religious and technological-technocratic solutions to contemporary African independence. He was a man of his times living and working in an increasingly problematic context guided by the Christian principles in which he was reared. He is the 'father of faith' in the Church of Christ in Zimbabwe, and leaves us pedagogical lessons on human security, gender equality, church governance and human well-being that require review within the contemporary Christian fraternity. (shrink)

A number of empirical studies have examined business ethics across cultures, focusing primarily on differences in ethical profiles between cultures and groups. When managers consider whether or not to develop a business relationship with those from a different culture, their decision may be affected by actual differences in ethical profiles, but potentially even more so by their perceptions of ethicality in the counterpart culture. The latter issue has been largely ignored in extant empirical research regarding cross-cultural ethical profiles. In this (...) study, we employ a design that allows for a more complete analysis of cross-cultural perspectives, examining both the manner in which selected cultures view themselves and the manner in which those same cultures perceive the ethical profiles of others. To this end, we surveyed master’s students in business fields at several universities in the United States and China—two countries/cultures that engage in a significant amount of business transactions—and examined differences in personal ethical profiles across cultures, differences in one group’s ethical profile and the way it is perceived by the other group, and differences in perceived ethical profiles across cultures; that is, differences in how groups view each other. Findings suggest meaningful discrepancies in the ethical perceptions formed toward the counterpart culture. Results support a role for ethical perceptions in future research, and further examination and inquiry into the development and adaptation of ethical perceptions in cross-cultural business dealings. (shrink)

Researchers have consistently identified the disparity between teachers’ practical and legal knowledge regarding teachers’ right to discipline students. However, few studies have investigated teachers’ construction processes that form construction outcomes, which would help navigate the role of legislation in school discipline. This study contributes to a holistic picture of the neglected disciplinary rights that teachers construct in teaching practice and their underexplored attitude toward the law, using an interview-based constructionist method on twelve teachers of Lvliang city in a Chinese K-12 (...) context. The findings suggest that the participants prefer to acquire discipline knowledge by interacting with multiple power relations in their local environment and that their knowledge is historically and culturally specific. Although the disciplinary right they construct is never static, balanced, or essentialised, the participants’ constructions are commonly not in line with legal provisions or the aims of the law. Furthermore, school discipline legislation plays a silent role in empowering teachers to discipline students, but it is more visible in holding back teachers’ use of corporal punishment. These findings illustrate the complexity of implementing school disciplinary law as a universal national policy. (shrink)

Violence has become a common phenomenon that affects women and children, particularly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While the lockdown regulations were meant to save lives by preventing further spread of the virus, another virus called ‘violence against women’ encroached the space which is supposed to be the safest for women and children. For women, homes have now been turned into cages of violence and slaughterhouses. Toxic masculinity is seen at play as all dominant and power ideologies are (...) employed against women. This article deals with these challenges of violence against women in Botswana from a pastoral care point of view. Firstly, it provides an overview of the current gender-based violence (GBV) situation in Botswana through empirical data from other social scientists. It then highlights some forms and the causes linked to the problem of GBV in Botswana. Secondly, it brings in pastoral care work, particularly mutual care, as a relevant tool for the church in addressing GBV. Lastly, it suggests ways in which the church could contribute in pursuit of gender justice and building a violence-free society. Contribution: While the article grapples with the challenges of GBV and persistent toxic masculinities from a theological point of view, the implications of the outcome are multidisciplinary. They aim to respond and raise awareness about the need to build a violence-free society, and to deal with the challenges of oppression, toxic masculinity and manhood ideologies which result in the domination and killing of women. (shrink)

This article explored health determinants on successful, healthy ageing in sub-Saharan Africa, using the case of Ramotswa in Botswana. The study used contextual, descriptive and qualitative approaches. It also explored the integrative nature of determinants to healthy and successful ageing by examining the biopsychological and physiological challenges. The article made use of the pastoral theological approach in understanding the complexity of ageing and revealing solutions for mitigating the health challenges encountered by older persons. While the article was theological in its (...) approach, it acknowledged the interconnectedness with other disciplines, such as sociology and psychology, as fundamental in dealing with this topic. The findings revealed the elderly caregivers’ need for emotional support. This study maintained that emotional support could minimise the burden on elderly caregivers, because reports during the study indicated that elderly caregivers experienced a mixture of emotions such as loneliness, frustration, anger, depression, guilt, anxiety, love, acceptance and warmth, which could have negative consequences on them. Contribution: In conclusion, the article suggested that given the complexity of the understanding of successful and healthy ageing, as well as the integrative nature of determinants of successful ageing, it is crucial for caregivers and policymakers to avoid a blanket approach in dealing with elderly persons in a context of care. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship of mourning and the gift in the work of Jacques Derrida. I argue that mourning is not a Derridean gift, but mourning does open us to the gift. Reading the works of Aristotle, Cicero, and Kierkegaard on friendship and love to the dead in the wake of Derrida’s Politics of Friendship makes this relation among mourning and the gift apparent for he presents mourning as the opening to a democracy to-come whose (...) logic is the gift. Through these accounts, I maintain that in preparing us for the gift, mourning the dead other can help us to relate better with the living other in ethical, political, and ontological terms. (shrink)

Tracing the notion of 'the gift' in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra Emilio Corriero provides a new interpretation of this essential text, alongside 'the gift's' evolution as a key concept in the history of western philosophy and Christianity. The last phase of Nietzsche's thought, including his writings on the death of God, The Will to Power, the Overman, and eternal recurrence are analysed anew in Corriero's reading of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. From Nietzsche's Prologue, in which Zarathustra presents the idea (...) of the Overman as a gift of love and wisdom, up to the fourth and final book, in which the theme of hospitality and sacrifice are inextricably linked to the concept of donation, highlighting the novelty and exceptionality of Zarathustra's gift. Building on these ideas, this book reveals how the gift of Zarathustra put forward by Nietzsche rethinks the relationships between individuals based on Christian doctrine, enabling new forms of coexistence and sociality to thrive. Using key 20th century writings on 'the gift' from Derrida, Benveniste, and Esposito, Corriero traverses themes of sacrifice and hospitality, the idea of friend and foe, compassionate love and affirmative love, to present Zarathustra as Nietzsche's ultimate gift, as well as cementing the centrality of 'the gift' to the history of sociality and philosophy. (shrink)

Reproductive gift relationships must be seen in their totality, not just as helping someone have a child. Noncommercial surrogacy cannot be treated as a mere act of altruism—any valorizing of altruistic surrogacy and reproductive gift‐giving must be assessed within the wider context of women's political inequality.

Derrida analyzes Patocka's Heretical Essays on the History of Philosophy and develops and compares his ideas to the works of Heidegger, Levinas, and Kierkegaard.

The option of being ‘spiritual but not religious’ deserves much more philosophical attention. That is the aim here, taking the work of Robert Solomon as a starting point, with focus on the particular issues around viewing life as gift. This requires analysis of ‘existential gratitude’ to show that there can be gratitude for things without gratitude to someone for providing things, and also closer attention to the role that metaphor plays in cognition. I consider two main concerns with (...) class='Hi'>gift and gratitude thinking, that the nonreligious justification is too instrumentalist in its approach and that viewing life as gift, whether in a religious or nonreligious way, is simply too optimistic. (shrink)

The paper attempts to bridge a gap between two prevalent conceptions of forgiveness that are widely thought to be in opposition. On one side of things, forgiveness is often characterized as a gift. The image is an ever-present one, enduring in popular culture no less than in the sober prose of analytic philosophy. But we also talk of forgiveness as a moral imperative, an important, even vital aspect of our moral life. I argue that, contrary to what may at (...) first appear, the two sides are not in tension, and each gets at something important about the nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness is indeed a gift but, much like actual gifts, it is one we are sometimes required to give. (shrink)

The Gift of the Other brings together a philosophical analysis of time, embodiment, and ethical responsibility with a feminist critique of the way women’s reproductive capacity has been theorized and represented in Western culture. Author Lisa Guenther develops the ethical and temporal implications of understanding birth as the gift of the Other, a gift which makes existence possible, and already orients this existence toward a radical responsibility for Others. Through an engagement with the work of Levinas, Beauvoir, (...) Arendt, Irigaray, and Kristeva, the author outlines an ethics of maternity based on the givenness of existence and a feminist politics of motherhood which critiques the exploitation of maternal generosity. (shrink)

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the ethical acceptability of physicians receiving gifts from drug companies. Professional guidelines recognize industry gifts as a conflict of interest and establish thresholds prohibiting the exchange of large gifts while expressly allowing for the exchange of small gifts such as pens, note pads, and coffee. Considerable evidence from the social sciences suggests that gifts of negligible value can influence the behavior of the recipient in ways the recipient does not always realize. (...) Policies and guidelines that rely on arbitrary value limits for gift-giving or receipt should be reevaluated. (shrink)

The concept of giftedness has evolved significantly over time. Today, it still lacks a singular and precise definition, but it is continually evolving. One notable model found in the literature is the Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) by Gagné. This model appears to be a valid contribution to better understanding giftedness, the characteristics of gifted students and the problems related to these constructs. The article aims to highlight the characteristics of gifted students, underlining critical points and strengths in (...) relation to the various contexts, specifically to the school context, and to Gagné’s model (personal, scholastic, environmental and social), with a focus on future implications. (shrink)

This paper is an enquiry into the meaning of teaching. I argue that as a result of the influence of constructivist ideas about learning on education, teaching has become increasingly understood as the facilitation of learning rather than as a process where teachers have something to give to their students. The idea that teaching is immanent to learning goes back to the Socratic idea of teaching as a maieutic process, that is, as bringing out what is already there. Against the (...) maieutic conception of teaching I argue for an understanding of teaching in terms of transcendence, where teaching brings something radically new to the student. I explore the meaning of the idea of transcendence through a discussion of Kierkegaard and Levinas, who both criticise the maieutic understanding of teaching and, instead, argue for a transcendent understanding of teaching—an understanding of teaching which they refer to as ‘revelation.’ Whereas Kierkegaard argues that revelation—which he understand as a process of ‘double truth giving’—lies beyond the power of the teacher, Levinas interprets revelation as the experience of ‘being taught.’ I use Levinas’s suggestion in order to explore the distinction between ‘learning from’ and ‘being taught by’ and argue that teaching has to be understood in the latter sense, that is, in terms of the experience of ‘being taught.’ To connect the idea of teaching to the experience of ‘being taught’ highlights that teaching can be understood as a process of ‘truth giving’ albeit that (1) this ‘gift’ lies beyond the powers of the teacher, and (2) the truth that is given, has to be understood in terms of what Kierkegaard calls ‘subjective truth’—which is not relativistic truth but existential truth, that is, truth that matters for one’s life. Understanding teaching in these terms also opens up new possibilities for understanding the role of authority in teaching. While my argument implies that teachers cannot simply and straightforwardly ‘produce’ the experience of ‘being taught’—so that what matters has to do with the conditions under which the gift of teaching can be received—their actions and activities nonetheless matter. In the final section of the paper I therefore argue that if we want to give teaching back to education, we need to resist the depiction of the teacher as a disposable and dispensable ‘resource’ that students can learn from or not, and need to articulate and enact a different story about the teacher, the student and the school. (shrink)

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the ethical acceptability of physicians receiving gifts from drug companies. Professional guidelines recognize industry gifts as a conflict of interest and establish thresholds prohibiting the exchange of large gifts while expressly allowing for the exchange of small gifts such as pens, note pads, and coffee. Considerable evidence from the social sciences suggests that gifts of negligible value can influence the behavior of the recipient in ways the recipient does not always realize. (...) Policies and guidelines that rely on arbitrary value limits for gift-giving or receipt should be reevaluated. (shrink)

This paper addresses ‘the gift’ as the central concept in a discussion about the literacy education for new immigrants that has been developing in Taiwan since the early 1990s. The point of departure for this discussion is the advent of international marriages that are the consequence of new arrivals from Southeast Asia and China, and their effect guest/host relationship. In the first half of the article, I apply Marcel Mauss' idea of gift in order to examine the interactions (...) within this host/guest relationship, engaging the ideologies that underpin the new immigrants' literacy education, and the ways in which new immigrants are identified in Taiwanese society. In the second half of this article, I use Jacques Derrida's critique of Mauss' theory of the gift to explore Derrida's own idea of the gift, with the particular objective of evaluating the question of how national identity in Taiwanese society relates to the new immigrants' literacy education policy. (shrink)

Derrida made the case that the ‘pure gift’ is impossible. Because of the element of obligation and reciprocity involved, gift relationships are inevitably reduced to relationships of economic exchange. This position echoes the exchange theory of the social behaviourists, the cost-benefit analyses of evolutionary psychology, and other reductionist conjectures. In this paper, 18 written accounts of gifting are analysed using established phenomenological tools of reflection. It is shown that the dynamics of the gift relationship are complex and, (...) specifically, reciprocation in gifting is not akin to ‘repaying’ the gift, but should rather be seen as a response to the gift as an expression of affective affirmation, rendering this mutual. Gift giving is in the expressive realm rather than the practical . This was, intriguingly, known explicitly by Adam Smith. (shrink)

In his classic essay The Gift, Marcel Mauss argued that gifts can never be truly free; rather, they bring about an expectation of reciprocal exchange. For over one hundred years, his ideas on economy, social relations, and exchange have inspired new modes of thought, none more so than what crystallized in the 1980s around an innovative group of French academics. In The Gift Paradigm, Alain Caillé provides the first in-depth, English-language introduction to La Revue du MAUSS - or, (...) "Anti-Utilitarian Movement in the Social Sciences," combining the work of anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, and others. Today, the very idea of a "general social science" seems unthinkable, unless you count the pervasive sway of a utilitarian logic in orthodox economics, or the diffuse influence of neoliberalism. Here, Caillé offers a distinctly different reading of economy and society, inspired by Mauss - as vital now as ever. (shrink)

Introduction -- Gift's originary experience -- Concrete singularity -- Reception and reciprocity -- The Son's gift of self -- The unpreceded giver -- Gift's unifying memory -- The unexpected gift -- Envoi.

Is it possible to really give a gift? This may, at first glance, seem like a peripheral question for philosophy, which normally directs its attention to seemingly bigger questions. The dynamics of the gift move into philosophy from anthropology and sociology, but Jacques Derrida insists that this question belongs at the heart of philosophy. This volume takes up Derrida's challenge to invest in the question of a gift, and the relationship between gift and economy. The powerful (...) and corruptive forces of economy can wreak havoc on every effort to give or receive a pure gift. Each of the essays investigates some aspect of the gift, and the way economics relate to the sheer hospitality and generosity implied in the idea of giving. Is there a blessed economy? Must economics always operate in a sinister and exploitive fashion? What can be learned by the philosophical investigations related to this concept? There is something about the event or idea of the gift that cannot be entirely explained by the machinations of economy. In the giving of a gift something happens, if only unpredictably and rarely, that cannot be explained by the calculus that tracks the exchange of money, property, goods, debt and power. This excess that confounds the reduction of the gift to the dynamics of power and exchange is a source of creative fascination for a wide range of philosophers, including the collection of scholars who have contributed to this book. (shrink)

. This paper explores the relationship between gift giving, guanxi and corruption through a study of the relationships between UK manufacturing companies in China and their local component suppliers. The analysis is based on interviews in the China-based operations of 49 UK companies. Interviews were carried out both with senior (often expatriate) staff and with local line managers who were responsible for everyday purchasing decisions and for managing relationships with suppliers. The results suggest that gift giving is perceived (...) to be a significant problem in UK-owned companies in China. However the relationship between these payments and established understanding of gift giving within guanxi-networks appears to be weak. Gift giving appears to be associated with illicit payments, corruption and the pursuit of self-interest. Firms seek to reduce the incidence of illicit transactions by changing staff roles, instituting joint responsibilities, which include the separation of different aspects of sourcing/purchasing, ineasing the involvement of senior staff in the process and through the education of employee and suppliers. (shrink)

Bringing social theory and philosophy to bear on popular movies, novels, myths, and fairy tales, The Gift and its Paradoxes explores the ambiguity of the gift: it is at once both a relation and a thing, alienable and inalienable, present and poison. Challenging the nature of giving as reciprocal, the book engages critically with the work of Mauss and develops a new theory of the gift according to which the gift cannot be reduced to a model (...) of exchange, but must instead entail a loss or sacrifice. Ultimately, the gift is examined in the book as the impossible occurrence of gratuitous giving. (shrink)

Happiness : an introduction to the good life -- Decisions : giving our life to the glory of God -- Gifts : ethics in an ancient Hebrew worldview -- Paradigms : learning how to be good -- Practices : working towards a goal -- Imagination : living into the new possibility with Christ -- Rules : formal ethics in Christianity -- Righteousness : filling our hunger.

Gifts have served as a fundamental aspect of the human experience across time, even as their precise roles and functions have shifted. In the past, bioethicists and others have drawn upon anthropol...

Given the coterie of philosophers focused on everyday aesthetics, it's fascinating that gift reception has heretofore managed to escape their scrutiny. To enact a gift, recipients begin by imagining its use. On this level, gifts serve as a litmus test. In luring us, we're taken out of our normal ways of being to experience a different side of ourselves. Enacting a gift is thus a kind of performance, whose value depends on the donee’s interpretation, just as exhibitions, (...) concerts, staged plays or books are performances of visual art, scores, scripts or texts, whose interpretations demonstrate their aesthetic value. To develop the relationship between enacting gifts and performing artworks, I begin by surveying junctures along the gift-event’s arc: reply, imagination, trust, recognition, transformation and memory. Transformations arising from agonistic gifts strike me as significant because they characterise the way gifts challenge our beliefs, eventually altering our values. That we grow to love gifts, which we originally rejected out of hand, casts doubt on self-knowledge. Enacted gifts handily challenge self-knowledge’s twin features: authority and transparency. As this paper indicates, gift reception helps both to understand ourselves better and to remove the obstacles to what Quassim Cassim calls Substantive Self-Knowledge. (shrink)

Deci and Ryan’s Basic Human Needs Theory (BHNT) claims that thriving is contingent upon the satisfaction of our fundamental psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This article considers how BHNT might complement a theological understanding of flourishing with particular reference to competence, and vice versa. By perceiving charismata as spiritual competencies with a mix of natural and supernatural qualities, it is possible to utilise insights from BHNT to identify circumstances that can support or thwart their cultivation. Whilst spiritual gifts (...) are uniquely and diversely manifest in the individuals comprising the church community, they operate collectively since the Spirit instigates and enables them for a common purpose. Thus, as the sum of its interdependent parts, the church has a Spirit gifted ‘communal competence’ that is maximised in submission to, and unity with, others and God. (shrink)

Because Europeans have shaped scholarly discourse about Southeast Asia and Buddhism, movement away from understanding “pure” Theravada Buddhism through religious and philosophical doctrine was a technique to decenter Western readings and shows how practitioners shaped their own beliefs. Stanley Tambiah called for academics to pay more attention to common beliefs of laypeople and everyday practices of monks. This, in turn, placed anthropologists at the center of collecting knowledge about Theravada Buddhism. Yet French philosophers continued, through their theories, to influence the (...) structure of anthropological analysis of Theravada cultures, particular through gift exchanges. In this paper, I will explore ways Derrida’s theories of gifts and ghosts can add to anthropological studies of Southeast Asian communities while also helping to recover philosophical and ethical components of Theravada practices. (shrink)

The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida’s most sustained consideration of religion, explores questions first introduced in his book Given Time about the limits of the rational and responsible that one reaches in granting or accepting death, whether by sacrifice, murder, execution, or suicide. Derrida analyzes Czech philosopher Jan Patocka’s Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History and develops and compares his ideas to the works of Heidegger, Lévinas, and Kierkegaard. One of Derrida’s major works, The Gift of Death (...) resonates with much of his earlier writing, and this highly anticipated second edition is greatly enhanced by David Wills’s updated translation. This new edition also features the first-ever English translation of Derrida’s Literature in Secret. In it, Derrida continues his discussion of the sacrifice of Isaac, which leads to bracing meditations on secrecy, forgiveness, literature, and democracy. He also offers a reading of Kafka’s Letter to His Father and uses the story of the flood in Genesis as an embarkation point for a consideration of divine sovereignty. “An important contribution to the critical study of ethics that commends itself to philosophers, social scientists, scholars of religion... [and those] made curious by the controversy that so often attends Derrida.”—Booklist, on the first edition. (shrink)

In Ricoeur’s last works, we can find what he calls a poetics of love. Choosing the “dialectic” path of a comparison between love and justice, Ricoeur claims that justice lies in the rule of equivalence (give to each his own); the disorientation of love, instead, suspends the return, the equivalence, the exchange. Love does not say: “do ut des”, but rather (if we can transform the expression) it says “do ut dem”, to offer without expecting anything in return: this is (...) what Ricoeur calls a “first gift”. However, it is an expectation that is always open to the possibility of a “surprise”: the surprise of a “second first gift” able to fulfill the gratuity of the original act of donation. This essay questions this possibility of “mutual gift”. (shrink)

In this essay I argue that Marcel Mauss’s “Essay on the Gift” (1925) is not only intended to inaugurate a new paradigm on the terrain of ethnology and anthropology, but at the same time to make the gift a kind of novum organum of the social sciences and of moral and political philosophy itself. In the first part, I reconstructed the critique that M. Merleau-Ponty and C. Lefort have made to Lévi-Strauss’s “structuralist” reading of Mauss, and, in a (...) second part, I emphasised the importance that M. Hénaff assigned to the ceremonial gift of traditional societies as an intentional procedure of public mutual recognition between groups. But, using some of A. Caillé’s indications, I explain that this device of mutual recognition and alliance, characteristic of the gift cycle (giving/receiving/ reciprocating) also applies in modern societies whenever legal-political institutions become sclerotized and lose their legitimacy in the face of new actors in political action (newcomers or new arrivals, to use the Arendtian category of natality in a broad sense). (shrink)

If unremunerated blood donors are willing to participate, and if the use of them is economical from the perspective of those collecting blood, I can see no objection to their use. But there seems to me no good reason, moral or practical, why they should be used. The system of paid plasmapheresis as it currently operates in the United States and in Canada would seem perfectly adequate, and while there may always be ways in which the safety and efficiency of (...) supply could be increased, there seems no reason whatever to think that there would be an improvement if the current system changed so as to rely entirely on unpaid donors. Further, given the adequacy of paid plasmapheresis, I could see no problem if the collection of whole blood were to take place on a similar, fully-commercial, basis. Such a view is controversial. To argue for it, this paper offers just one strand in a complex argument: a critique of Richard Titmuss’s Gift Relationship, which holds an iconic position in the critical literature on the paid provision of blood. As I conclude: all told, there seems no good basis for rejecting supply of whole blood for money—let alone the supply of blood plasma. (shrink)