What's Left of Philosophy 28 | A Very Special Holiday Episode: Learning How to Give with Jacques Derrida
Dec 25, 2021
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The Paradox Of Pure Giving
- Giving feels ordinary but is philosophically impossible in purity because gifts immediately enter cycles of exchange.
- Derrida shows true giving would have to not appear as a gift at all, creating a paradox that reveals our social economy.
Why The Gift Matters Politically
- Derrida insists the gift gets absorbed into symbolic and material economies, making non-reciprocal giving nearly unreachable.
- Preserving a notion of a gift matters because it resists total social life reducible to exchange value.
Curb’s Philanthropy Example
- The Curb Your Enthusiasm story contrasts Larry's named philanthropy with Ted Danson's anonymous gift to mock philanthropic motives.
- Ted's 'anonymous but told everyone' giving exposes how philanthropy gets entangled with recognition.