Abstract
This chapter takes a look at the gift, in which academic interest has recently grown, especially after the release of Benedict XVI’s social encyclical Caritas in Veritate. It outlines a genealogy of the gift, briefly presenting the three main stages of its evolution: (1) the ceremonial gift, typical of the ancient world and found in the cultural anthropological approach that the French tradition later adopted (Mauss, Caillé, Hénaff, etc.); (2) the moral gift, which Aristotle first outlined to explain the emergence of the city; and (3) the personal gift, developed in the Middle Ages thanks to Christian Revelation and its corresponding idea of the person.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This point goes beyond the scope of this article. For an idea of economics in the ancient world, see: Scalzo (2014).
- 2.
Cfr. Mauss (2009). Although the original version is from 1924, Lévi-Strauss was responsible for its dissemination, having popularized Mauss’s work after his death in 1950. Currently, the Revue du Mauss, edited by the Mouvement anti-utilitariste dans les sciences sociales (M.A.U.S.S. http://www.revuedumauss.com), shows the evolution of leading intellectuals works on this matter.
- 3.
Original version: Anthropologie du don. Le tiers paradigme, Desclée, París, 2000.
- 4.
See also Godbout, J. (2000).
- 5.
Holism points to the fact that the totality of the social sphere, which preexists individuals and their actions, explains by default everything that makes up the individual parts of society. From the scientific point of view, it has taken the form of functionalism, culturalism, structuralism, etc. see: González (2013), p. 16.
- 6.
The exchange of useful goods developed in parallel, but it was not of great importance since these groups’ subsistence economies were, in principle, self-sufficient.
- 7.
- 8.
Hénaff gives an example with by hau and taonga. The spiritual hau always has to return to its origin, the motivation to give, while the giver, taonga, is omnipotent. He also gives an example with a kind of exchange called kula, which involves a 3-month journey by ship where one tribe goes to visit another resulting in a competitive exhibition and then exchange of precious goods called waygu’a takes place: precious necklaces (soulava) that are viewed as masculine, worn by women and move East to West are traded for bracelets (mwali) that are viewed as feminine, worn by men and move West to East. According to the trobiandés myth, mwali and soulava tend toward each other, as man tends toward woman. Exchange is a festive ceremony in which the giver is not seen as losing, but rather gaining. Moreover, he who gives more than he receives is superior. These differences in rank founded the social order. Denying the gift (not accepting it) was tantamount to spurning an invitation to alliance, which was equivalent to declaring war. The other example he uses is potlatch, one chief’s celebration to honor another that he considered a rival, which augmented the rivalry because the more ostentatious one celebration, the more ostentatious the reciprocal recognition had to be. See Hénaff (2010), p. 116–138.
- 9.
The typical example of this kind of justice is “an eye for an eye.”
- 10.
“Distributive justice is based on man’s ‘natural’ inequality, while corrective justice is concerned with the equality of man, which is instituted by ‘convention.’” Soudek (1952), p. 47.
- 11.
Aristotle’s sharp distinction between exchange value and use value may lead to a certain ambivalence on this point since the exchange value of a good does not correspond to its proper and peculiar use. However, Aristotle fails to say that the use of an object in exchange is “unnatural” (para phusin), precisely because using an object in a way other than its proper and peculiar use does not mean that this use is bad.
- 12.
It was Marx who first used the letters C and M (commodities and money) to represent the circuits by which Aristotle describes the various exchange forms. See Capital, I, 3 y II, 4.
- 13.
Without the notion of creation, the idea of the person is unattainable because radical contingency and the distinction between being and nothingness go along with it and, therefore, essence and existence cannot be distinguished. For a metaphysics of the person see: González (2006), Polo (1999) and Haya (1997).
- 14.
For other created beings, fulfilling that which they tend toward is necessary and completely determined by their nature. Their end is, therefore, a finite external consummation from an instinctive and unthinking tendency.
- 15.
Grace is necessary as a consequence of original sin. Before the fall, man knew that he should love God, his origin and the end towards which he tends, all of which freely united him to God.
- 16.
See also p. 95–105 y 596–597.
- 17.
As we saw, for Mauss, the gift system is the fundamental form in which human groups express relationships. It does not deal with giving, but rather with giving of oneself in whatever is given, which is the manifestation of personal being.
- 18.
“Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is “mine” to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is “his”, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot “give” what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it” (CiV, 6).
- 19.
I recognize that the scope of this thesis goes beyond the scope of this article and will be the subject of a future one. For now, it is enough to accept that the modern project is a deliberate attempt to eradicate the gift from social order based on an inaccurate anthropological conception. “Idealizing technical progress, or contemplating the utopia of a return to humanity’s original natural state, are two contrasting ways of detaching progress from its moral evaluation and hence from our responsibility.” (CiV, 14)
- 20.
In my doctoral thesis, The Origins of Modern Economic Rationality: An approach from the philosophy of economics, I analyzed how economic theory has evolved to eventually arrive at a dead end. See: http://hdl.handle.net/10171/23846.
- 21.
References
Aquinas, Thomas. 2006. Summa Theologiae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Alvira, R. 2003. Tener y existir, reflexión y donación. Anuario Filosófico XXXVI/3: 575–585.
Alvira, R. 1995. Intento de clasificar la pluralidad de subsistemas sociales, con especial atención al Derecho. Persona y Derecho 33: 41–51.
Barker, Ernest. 1959. The political thought of Plato and Aristotle. New York: Dover Publications.
Barnes, Jonathan. 1984. The complete works of Aristotle, The revised Oxford Translation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Benedict XVI. 2009. Caritas in Veritate. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html.
Berthoud, A. (2002). Essais de Philosophie Économique, ed. Platon, Aristote, Hobbes, and A. Smith, Marx. Arras-Lille: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
Brubaker, Rogers. 2006. The limits of rationality. An essay on the social and moral thought of Max Weber. Londres/Nueva York: Routledge.
Bruni, L. 2006. Il prezzo della gratuità. Roma: Città Nuova.
Bruni, L., and R. Sudgen. 2008. Fraternity: Why the market need not be a morality free zone? Economics and Philosophy 24: 36–64.
Bruni, L. 2008. Reciprocity, altruism and civil society. London: Routledge.
Bruni, L., and S. Zamagni. 2004. Economia civile. Efficienza, equità, felicità pubblica. Bologna: II. Mulino.
Caillé, A. 2000. Anthropologie du don. Le tiers paradigme. París: Desclée de Brouwer.
Crespo, M. 2004. El perdón: una investigación filosófica. Madrid: Encuentro.
Crespo, R. 2008. The economic’ according to Aristotle: Ethical, political and epistemological implications. Foundations of Science 13: 3–4.
Cruz Prados, A. 2006. Ethos y Polis. Bases para una reconstrucción de la Filosofía Política. Pamplona: EUNSA.
Cruz, J. 2012. ¿Qué significa dar? Un apunte fenomenológico sobre Santo Tomás. http://www.leynatural.es/2012/11/15/.
Falgueras, I. 2013. El dar, actividad plena de la libertad trascendental, Studia Poliana, vol. 15. Pamplona: Universidad de Navarra.
Finley, M. 1970. Aristotle and economic analysis. Past and Present 47: 3–25.
García Villoslada, R. 1976. Raíces históricas del luteranismo. Madrid: BAC.
Gillespie, M. 2008. The theological origins of modernity. Chicago/Londres: The University of Chicago Press.
Gilson, E. 2007. Juan Duns Escoto. Introducción a sus posiciones fundamentales. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Gilson, E. 2009. Introducción a la filosofía cristiana. Madrid: Encuentro.
Girard, R. 2009. La violencia y lo sagrado. Barcelona: Anagrama.
Godbout, J. 2000. Le don, le dette, l ‘identité: Homo donatorversus homo economicus. París: La Découverte.
Godbout, J., and A. Caillé. 2000. L’espirit du don. París: La Dècouverte & Syros.
Godelier, M. 1998. El enigma del don. Barcelona: Paidós.
González, A. 2006. Thomistic metaphysics: Contemporary interpretations. Anuario Filosófico XXXIX(2): 401–437.
González, A.L. 2013. Persona, libertad, don. Lección inaugural del curso académico 2013–14 (6 de septiembre de 2013). Pamplona: Universidad de Navarra.
Haya, F. 1997. El ser personal. De Tomás de Aquino a la metafísica del don. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Hénaff, M. 2003. Religious ethics, gift exchange and capitalism. European Journal of Sociology 44(03): 293–324.
Hénaff, M. 2010. The price of truth: Gift, money and philosophy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Langholm, O. 1983. Wealth and money in the Aristotelian tradition. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.
Llano, A. 2004. Deseo, violencia, sacrificio. El secreto del mito según René Girard. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Martínez Echevarría, M. 2004. Orden y progreso, Procesos de autoorganización. In Rubio de Urquía, R. et al (cord.). Unión Editorial, Madrid.
Martínez Echevarría, M. 2010. Don y desarrollo, bases de la economía. Scripta Theologica 42: 121 a 138.
Martínez Echevarría, M. 1983. Evolución del Pensamiento Económico. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.
Martínez Echevarría, M. 2015. Economía y producción en el pensamiento de Leonardo Polo. In Comentarios al pensamiento de Polo sobre economía, coord. J. García Gonzáles. Madrid: Bubok.
Mateo Seco, L. 1978. Martín Lutero: sobre la libertad esclava. Madrid: Emesa.
Mauss, M. 2009. Ensayo sobre el don. Forma y función del intercambio en las sociedades arcaicas. Buenos Aires: Ed. Katz.
Meikle, S. 1979. Aristotle and the political economy of the Polis. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 99: 57–73.
Meikle, S. 1995. Aristotle’s economic thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marx, Karl. 1988. El capital. Barcelona: Antalbe.
Millet, P. 1991. Lending and borrowing in ancient Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moreno Almárcegui, A. 2010. Ensayo sobre el don. Actas del Seminario del grupo de investigación en Economía Política y Filosofía, Universidad de Navarra.
Moreno, A. 2015. Consanguinidad y gracia. El culto a María y José en Occidente. Siglos I-XX. El caso de España, Actas del Seminario del grupo de investigación en Economía Política y Filosofía, Universidad de Navarra.
Muralt, A. 2002. La estructura de la filosofía política moderna. Madrid: Istmo.
Muralt, A. 2008. La apuesta de la filosofía medieval. Estudios tomistas, escotistas, ockhamistas y gregorianos. Madrid: Marcial Pons.
Orléan, A. 2008. Pour une aproche girardienne de l’hommo oeconomicuos. Cahiers de L’Herne consacrés à René Girard 89.
Polo, L. 1993. Presente y futuro del hombre. Madrid: Rialp.
Polo, L. 1996. Tener y dar. In Sobre la existencia Cristiana, 103–136. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Polo, L. 1997. Ética. Hacia una versión moderna de los temas clásicos. Madrid: Aedos.
Polo, L. 1999. Antropología Trascendental 1. La persona humana. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Polo, L. 2001. Nominalismo, idealismo y realismo. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Polo, L. 2003. Quién es el hombre. Un espíritu en el tiempo. Madrid: Rialp.
Polo, L. 2005. Lo radical y la libertad. In Cuadernos de Anuario Filosófico, 179. Pamplona.
Polo, L. 2012. Filosofía y economía. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Rieff, P. 2007. Charisma. The gift of grace and how it has been taken away from us. Nueva York: Pantheon Books.
Ritchie, D. 1894. Aristotle’s subdivisions of particular justice. Classical Review 8(May): 185–192.
Rubio de Urquía, R. y Pérez-Soba, J. (eds.). 2014. La doctrina social de la Iglesia. Estudios a la luz de la encíclica Caritas in veritate. AEDOS, Biblioteca de Autores cristianos, Madrid.
Sánchez de la Cruz, C. 2012. Don y gratuidad en el pensamiento de Joseph Ratzinger. Claves para la teología moral. Madrid: Perpetuo socorro.
Scalzo, G. 2008. Génesis del concepto de interés propio. Cuadernos Empresa y Humanismo, vol. 108. Pampona: Servicio de Publicaciones UNAV.
Scalzo, G. 2012. La racionalidad en Max Weber. Cuadernos Empresa y Humanismo, vol. 118. Pampona: Servicio de Publicaciones UNAV.
Scalzo, G. 2014. Génesis del pensamiento económico: dos visiones en pugna. Cauriensia IX: 341–374.
Sellés, J. 2007. Antropología para inconformes. Una antropología abierta al futuro. Madrid: Rialp.
de Simone, R. 2011. An analysis of the history of gift. Pamplona: Reconstructing Personal Gift.
Soudek, J. 1952. Aristotle’s theory of exchange. An inquiry into the origin of economic analysis. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 96, 1.
Weber, M. 1984. Economía y Sociedad. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Weber, M. 1982. Ensayos sobre metodología sociológica. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu.
Weber, M. 2008. La ética protestante y el espíritu del capitalismo. Edición crítica de Francisco Gil Villegas M. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Yepes Stork, R. 1977. Fundamentos de antropología. Un ideal de la excelencia humana. Pamplona: Eunsa.
Zamagni, S. (2008). Reciprocity, civil economy, common good. In Pursuing the common good, ed. M. Archer et al, 467–502. Vatican City: The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Zamagni, S., and L. Bruni. 2013. Handbook on the economics of reciprocity and social enterprise. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward Elgar.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scalzo, G. (2017). A Genealogy of the Gift. In: Rendtorff, J. (eds) Perspectives on Philosophy of Management and Business Ethics. Ethical Economy, vol 51. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46973-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46973-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46972-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46973-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)