The Philosophers' Gift: Reexamining Reciprocity

For philosophers, the gift fascinates because it demands disinterested generosity. Yet anthropology offers another view. Reciprocity, rather than disinterestedness, Hénaff shows, is central to ceremonial giving, alliance, and the social bond. From actual gift practices, Hénaff develops an original and profound theory of symbolism, the social, and the relationship between self and other.

Author: Marcel Hénaff
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: 11/05/2019
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.18lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9780823286478

About the Author
Marcel Hénaff (Author)
Marcel Hénaff (1942-2018) was Distinguished Research Professor of Literature and Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His books in English include Sade: The Invention of the Libertine Body (Minnesota, 1999), Claude Lévi-Strauss and the Making of Structural Anthropology (Minnesota, 2001), and The Price of Truth: Gift, Money, and Philosophy (Stanford, 2010).

Jean-Louis Morhange (Translator)
Jean-Louis Morhange is the translator of Pascal Baudry's French and Americans: The Other Shore (Les Frenchies, Inc., 2005) and of Marcel Hénaff's The Price of Truth: Gift, Money, and Philosophy (Stanford, 2010).